WIREDGOV

- Business benefits include keeping high streets buzzing and providing opportunities for unemployed people to gain experience and skills
 
- Social benefits for older volunteers and customers who rely on shops to interact with local community and ward off loneliness and isolation
 
- Demos challenges charity shops to prove their social value and emphasise opportunities for job seekers   

Charity shops act as a life support on Britain’s high streets, providing a number of benefits for local businesses, residents and communities, according to a new Demos report.

An in-depth study into the value of charity shops found they keep people shopping on their high street and drastically reduce the number of empty shops, challenging the perception that they fuel high street decline.

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