Here is where closures bite in 2025 and what it means locally.
After Halloween and Bonfire Night, the festive rush moves in and shoppers turn to gift lists, food shops and pick up points. Yet the **high street** is changing fast in 2025, with a fresh wave of **UK store closures** touching supermarkets, fashion, homeware and even your neighbourhood bank.
The pattern has become familiar as more people buy online and businesses tackle higher costs. Industry figures flag hundreds of big shops at risk, while thousands of jobs have already gone across cafes, counters and core stores. That new empty unit on your parade is not an outlier. And there is more to come.
Sainsbury’s cafe closures in 2025, the changes shoppers will notice first
One of the most visible shifts sits inside supermarkets. **Sainsbury’s** will shut its remaining 61 in-store cafes in 2025 as part of a wider plan to save £1 billion across three years. This follows an earlier wave of 200 cafe closures and means more than 3,000 jobs are affected, with many loyal regulars losing a familiar pit stop on the weekly shop.
Locations named by the grocer range across England, Wales and Scotland, from Fosse Park in Leicestershire to Scarborough, Penzance and Denton, with further closures in Wrexham, Ely, Emersons Green, Nantwich and Exeter. Towns such as Lincoln, Godalming, Hereford, Chichester and Newport are on the list, alongside Bristol, Chelmsford, Durham and Northampton. You get the picture, it is widespread.
For shoppers, the change means fewer places to grab a coffee or a kids meal mid-shop. Some sites may repurpose floor space for click and collect or faster grocery ranges, a sign of how baskets and habits have shifted. If you rely on a cafe to break up a big **Christmas** stock-up, it make sense to check ahead.
Iceland and Morrisons store cuts, the quiet retreat from the high street
Frozen specialist **Iceland** has trimmed its estate in 2025, closing supermarkets in Margate, two Inverness sites, Shotton, Borehamwood and Exeter. The brand continues to focus on value and delivery, yet certain high street pitches no longer stack up.
At **Morrisons**, the rework runs wider than stores. The chain has shut a spread of Morrisons Daily convenience shops in places like Gorleston, Peebles, Shenfield, Poole, Tonbridge, Romsey, Stewarton and Selsdon, with further exits in Haxby, Great Barr, Whickham and Worle. Cafés have gone in dozens of towns and cities including Bradford, Paisley, Portsmouth, Blackburn, Leeds, Wood Green, Lutterworth, Stirchley, Erith, Crowborough and Bellshill, with more closures across Wales and Scotland.
The retailer has also wound down Market Kitchens at sites such as Aberdeen King Street, Brentford Waterside, Camden Town, Cheltenham Up Hatherley, Leeds Kirkstall, Milton Keynes Westcroft and Nottingham Netherfield. Selected pharmacies and florists have shut as well, including in Birmingham Small Heath, Blackburn Railway Road and London Wood Green for pharmacies, and Sheffield Meadowhead, Sunderland Doxford Park and St Albans Hatfield Road for florists. It shows how supermarkets are pruning services to keep core food sales competitive.
Banks and big names closing branches, what that means for your town this winter
The pullback is not limited to grocers. Santander plans to close 95 UK bank branches in 2025 with 750 jobs impacted, with towns listed from Aberdare, Bognor Regis and Brixton to Falmouth, Farnham, Felixstowe and Finchley. NatWest has closed 53 branches between April and June, then a further 55 with three mobile vans from September, covering locations from Accrington and Allenton to Yorkshires and the North West. Lloyds Banking Group will close 136 branches across Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland up to March 2026, including market towns and suburbs from Biggleswade and Bridgnorth to Cardiff Whitchurch and Welwyn Garden City. Fewer **bank branches** means longer journeys for cash services and ID checks, which hits older customers hardest in colder months.
There have been casualties elsewhere. Marks and Spencer shut a major city centre store on 27 September while investing in new food halls. Poundland has closed dozens of shops after a court-backed restructuring plan. Beauty chain Bodycare fell into administration and shut all remaining stores in September with 444 job losses. WH Smith has exited a string of high street locations while leaning into travel sites, and Hobbycraft has pulled back after a summer restructure.
DIY and home has reshaped too. Homebase entered administration late last year but a deal saved many shops, with a long list of sites still closing earlier in 2025 in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Fashion has been on the move with New Look shutting stores in places such as Loughborough, Wickford, Porth and St Austell, while Monki is withdrawing from several UK cities. Even leisure and dining has taken a hit, with Italian restaurant group Gusto closing six venues and outdoor retailer Millets shutting or rebranding six stores to its sister **Go Outdoors**.
- Shoppers ask most about these closures right now Sainsbury’s Fosse Park, Scarborough and Penzance cafes, Iceland Borehamwood, Morrisons cafés in Bradford, Portsmouth and Wood Green, Morrisons Daily in Poole and Tonbridge, Santander Brixton and Falmouth, NatWest Accrington and Mansfield, WH Smith Bournemouth Old Christchurch Road and Luton, Bodycare Manchester and Sheffield, Homebase Romford and Wolverhampton
Behind the scenes, the British Retail Consortium has warned that up to 400 of the UK’s largest shops are at risk if business rates rise further, after 1,000 outlets closed over five years. It estimates that if all 400 went, as many as 100,000 jobs could be lost and councils would miss well over £100 million in rates every year. Retailers say rising employment costs and taxes are piling on pressure, which helps explain why your local parade can feel different every month.
For anyone planning gift runs and family get-togethers, a quick check before you head out will save a wasted trip. The shape of the **high street** is still shifting, and the map of **UK store closures** in 2025 keeps evolving week by week.
