The Decline of the High St

Scotland is losing shops faster than any other part of Britain, according to research. 

Leith in Edinburgh, with a 10.53% closure rate, and Ayr, at 8.3%, were the areas worst affected.

PwC Scotland deals director Mark Addley said: "The average of around one closure per day has been the Scottish average for most years since 2012 - but that will be of little comfort to people who have lost their jobs and livelihoods because of this. Overall, we are seeing far fewer closures due to outright insolvencies, but more due to the lower key restructuring of store portfolios." Addley said: "Looking ahead, I doubt the figures are going to improve by the end of 2017 for areas like banking as we've seen a number of companies announce branch closures of late