Vacant shops line both sides of Victoria Road on the south side of Glasgow. Like similar streets across Scotland, the former bustling thoroughfare has been hit hard by the proliferation of supermarkets and out-of-town retail parks.

A 24-hour Asda superstore sprang up in nearby Toryglen 10 years ago, and doomed most of the street's independent and family-run retailers. Unable to compete in terms of price, range and parking facilities, the majority of small businesses shut up shop.

Among the few struggling on in the shadow of the superstore is Martin Murray, a butcher who has traded on Victoria Road for 25 years. Six premises within 50 metres of his shop are unoccupied; the shop next door has been vacant for 12 years. "Some people have forgotten Victoria Road exists," he says.

"The whole retail area is unrecognisable. Today, compared to the first week I opened the shop, we are trading at less than half. Our profits went down as soon as Asda opened, and they've never come back."

The 50-year-old butcher is typical of many independent retailers struggling to eke out a living on Scotland's high streets today. The UK's four main retailers - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons - have taken control of nearly three-quarters of the UK grocery market. Tesco alone has an estimated 31% market share.

Scottish Executive research showed that the number of food retailers across the country fell by 1685 between 1998 and 2004 - a drop of 20% in six years. A further survey by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found the effect of a new supermarket can be to reduce town-centre shopping for 75% of locals, while 90% of local small shops suffer a downturn in business.

With the demise of the high street posing the threat of urban decay, as well as the decline of the small business base on which local economies depend, the battle to save it is an issue that has been steadily creeping up the political agenda.

Andrew Simms is the policy director of the New Economics Foundation, a think tank, and the author of the book Tescopoly, which analyses - among other issues - the global and local impact of Tesco. He believes the high street can only be revitalised if action is taken to guard against monopoly. This means tightening up the market via what he calls "greater checks and balances", and introducing a competition policy "that really works".

Simms - who, five years ago, coined the term "clone town" to describe the growing homogenisation of the high street - explains: "Tackling the issue can be done partly through public education and partly through giving local authorities the confidence to plan for what people want, and not to be intimidated by large companies.

"The evidence at the moment is that if you leave things to market forces, you end up with a ghost or clone town. Under the auspices of a free market you end up with the dominance of big market chains and lose the distinctiveness and character of smaller independent retailers - which give villages, towns and cities a true sense of place and character."

Politicians who neglect the plight of the high street do so at their peril, as the Dunfermline by-election proved last year. Labour, which controlled the town for decades, watched the Liberal Democrats overturn a majority of more than 11,000 to record one of the biggest upsets in Scottish political history. The vote was said to reflect resentment at neglect of the high street.

Referring to the "dominant market force" that is Tesco, Simms says: "If we have an unchallengeable leader with a large marketing budget and PR department, it is necessary to have stronger checks to prevent retailing becoming the playground of ever larger, powerful retailers. People do want to shop there - but they also want to visit distinct independent local retailers."

Earlier this week, however, Tesco turned its fire on small shops, claiming the real reason for their predicament was that shoppers prefer supermarkets. The retail giant - which grew from market-stall beginnings - said struggling independent stores often used competition from supermarkets as a cover for their own failings. The claim came in Tesco's latest submission to the Competition Commission, which is investigating grocery retailers.

With 60,000 retailers already having gone from Britain's high streets over the past seven years - more than 20 small businesses every day - and chains accounting for more than 80% of the country's food shopping, out-of-town developments are an increasingly contentious issue. Local protest has greeted plans by Tesco to build a giant supermarket in the west end of Glasgow, while Highland Council recently refused the chain's bid to build a fourth store in Inverness.

Yet moves by the chain to take over the run-down town centre of Linwood were broadly welcomed. The company's plans, it has been claimed, will help rebuild community facilities and small, independent shops, alongside a major superstore providing 300 jobs.

A holistic approach is required to rebuild the high street, according to Professor Paul Freathy, director of the Institute of Retail Studies at Stirling University. "Things can be done politically," he says. "It isn't just up to retailers to rekindle the high street. The most successful plans take a holistic view of the problem, which means giving incentives to retailers and making shop units affordable through rents and taxes."

Towns themselves must respond in a "proactive, co-ordinated" way, he says. "It's not just about getting a proper retail mix, but also about looking at what it takes to bring families back, and striking the right balance between day and evening activities. It means getting, among others, chambers of commerce and cafes and bars involved. And, although it might sound trivial, it is also about sorting out parking and litter problems, which really do put people off."

Among the measures promised by the bigger political parties to reinvigorate the high street is a rates relief scheme for small businesses. The minority parties, meanwhile, are focusing on tightening up planning guidelines and giving power back to communities, to enable them to oppose the development of out-of-town retail spaces.

But it is the proactive approach taken by West Kilbride and Wigtown - which have established themselves as "niche market" craft and book towns respectively - that suggests the high street's death is far from inevitable, says Professor Freathy. "If people can see a reason to go into the high street they will, but there must be a willingness to evolve with the times."

Andrew Watson, spokesman for the FSB, agrees. "The high street is not in terminal decline - yet. But we have to do something now."

Andrew Simms is also optimistic about the public's willingness to breath life back into the high street. "They are beginning to join up the dots," he says. "It doesn't say on the sliding doors of these stores that you are economically removing the heart of a community if you shop here - but people are becoming increasingly aware of the consequences. There is a small revival of people going back to street markets, as well as over 130 campaigns against Tesco alone, many of which are local and self-motivated.

"There is a lot of creativity on the ground, and this gives me optimism that the high street isn't dead."



The issues at a glance:

  • Supermarket chains now account for more than 80% of the country's food shopping.
  • While the number of town centre shops falls, the UK's four main retailers - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons - have taken control of nearly three-quarters of the UK grocery market.
  • Tesco alone has an estimated 31% market share. Recent research has also found that Tesco opened half of all new retail selling space in Britain in 2006 - two million square feet.
  • Research suggests 60,000 retailers have already gone from Britain's high streets over the past seven years - more than 20 small businesses every day.
  • Scottish Executive research has shown the number of food retailers across the country fell by 1685 between 1998 and 2004 - a drop of 20% in only six years.
  • A further survey by the Federation of Small Businesses found the effect of a new supermarket can be to reduce town-centre shopping for 75% of local people, while 90% of local small shops suffer a downturn.

    What the parties say:

    Labour
    Promises new powers and support for small businesses, plus more investment. Businesses would get double the rates discount they currently receive, with the smallest paying no business rates at all. The party's Town Centre Strategy contains measures including a consultation on extending the community right-to-buy to urban areas.

    SNP
    Intends to exempt many smaller traders from paying any business rates, and to extend the rebate scheme for those who continue to pay. It is setting a target of directing 20% of the public-sector procurement budget towards small- and medium- sized businesses.

    Conservative
    Proposing an £80m scheme to rejuvenate town centres. This is part of a package of measures which includes plans for a new procurement unit, which would be charged with looking at public-sector procurement rules to encourage the award of contracts to smaller local businesses, and a rates relief scheme to further encourage small businesses.

    Liberal Democrat
    The party intends to give local authorities the powers to exempt essential local shops from business rates. It also intends to drive business rates lower than in England, and wants to give councils an incentive to grow the local economy, allowing them to retain all business-rate receipts generated above a target and trend, rather than surrendering them to a central pool.

    Green
    Intends to adopt mandatory "green procurement" to help save struggling high- street businesses. The policy will also include new planning guidelines to inhibit the growth of "clone towns".

    SSP
    Wants "participatory democracy" at community level, by establishing "local assemblies" with the power to make and veto decisions that affect the community. Also wants to establish community-run supermarkets specialising in cheap, healthy, local produce, and intends to give government grants to local farmers and food co-operatives.

    Solidarity
    Vows to strengthen the rights of communities to halt out-of-town developments by according them third-party right of appeal. Intends to change planning regulations to enable locally run shops and social enterprises to be given priority over out-of-town developments, and would increase incentives towards locally run, socially equitable high-street shops.