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1 of 4 Britons will pay a premium to live near local high street

A new survey of 2,000 UK adults has revealed attitudes towards local high streets:

46% said having a vibrant local high street was important when choosing where to live
27% will pay a premium if there is a great local high street nearby
19% admitted that the decline of their local high street had played a role in the moving (or trying to move) property

The quality of local high streets is still an important factor in people’s decisions about where to live, despite the pandemic having impacted many, new research from Market Financial Solutions (MFS) has found.

The London-based specialist lender commissioned an independent, nationally representative survey of 2,000 UK adults. It found that having a vibrant local high street was important to almost half (46%) of the respondents when choosing where to live.

Over a quarter (27%) of respondents said they would pay a premium (when buying or renting a property) if there was a great local high street nearby – that equates to 14.3 million people across the country. Further, 19% said the decline of their local high street had prompted them to move property or start looking for a new home.

MFS’s research found that nearly half (46%) said their local high street had changed notably since 2020. However, only 20% thought their local high street had improved since the onset of the pandemic.

More than three in ten (31%) UK adults said they shop more on their local high street now than before the pandemic.

Exactly half (50%) stated they prefer independent shops or hospitality venues over chains. The vast majority (71%) think Liz Truss and the new-look government should do more to support local high street businesses.

Paresh Raja, CEO of MFS, said: “With lockdowns, travel restrictions, social distancing regulations, and now a cost-of-living crisis, local high streets have had a very difficult two-and-a-half years. Indeed, many thought these challenges would be the death of the local high street – but our research shows that there is still plenty of life in them.

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