Will shopping locally really save your community?

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “With people increasingly supporting their local area, businesses that have a strong understanding of the community will be the most likely to recover well and thrive in the coming months.” And yet, at a time when 7.6 million retail jobs are said to be at risk and small-scale retailers are warning that if consumers want to avoid a sea of vacant premises next year they need to use them today, that same Kantar report found those local shopping commitments are waning, with the figure dropping from 75 per cent in May and 67 per cent in June. But if all the staff in a business lived locally to their workplace, that same £1 spent at a local business could mean another £1.64 would subsequently be spent locally by associated individuals and businesses. “For retailers, the likelihood of that £1 spent multiplying as it flows through a local economy is whether the people employed at the shop live locally,” says Jaccarini. “But the bigger issue is the need to take local supply chains seriously if we want to engage with a ‘levelling up’ agenda that enables people to take control of their own destiny.”