Improving chain restaurants could stop 'death' of the UK high street

By Sophie Witts

- Last updated on GMT

Improving chain restaurants could stop 'death' of the UK high street

Related tags High street Restaurant

Improving the quality and variety of high street restaurants could help counter the decline of Britain's town centres, a new study claims.

A survey of over 2,000 UK adults found that better food and leisure facilities would encourage more people to visit their high street instead of shopping online.

Over a quarter of those under 55 years old said they enjoyed visiting restaurants in their town centre, while 29 per cent of all those polled said better quality eateries would improve their high street.

Just 31 per cent of under 34 year-olds currently prefer to shop in-store compared to 51 per cent of over 35’s.

Harry Pickering of Schroder UK Real Estate Fund - which co-commissioned the survey with Legal & General Capital - said: “The results demonstrate that online shopping is more frequent in younger adults, but a good mix of experiences, such as F&B and leisure, can help draw these shoppers to their town centre.”

Earlier this year a study by Raymond Blanc’s Brasserie Blanc restaurant ​group found that 62 per cent of UK diners thought the food in high street chains was ‘far too basic’.

Nearly three quarters of 18-34 year-olds said they wanted menus to be more ‘inspiring’ with more 'daring' dishes.

Richard Poyser, retail leasing manager at Legal & General Capital, said: “With continued speculation around the ‘death of the high street’, it’s very reassuring to see that people would still prefer to shop in store than online.

“However, as young people increasingly desire social experiences when shopping it is important for town centre’s to ensure a good mix of F&B and leisure to provide range of experiences to support the retail offer.”

Legal & General Capital and Schroder UK Real Estate Fund commissioned the survey for their joint venture the Bracknell Regeneration Partnership.

The companies are investing £768m in the regeneration of Bracknell Forest Borough, including a £240m retail, restaurant and leisure area known as The Lexicon Bracknell.

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