Payday lenders’ growth on deprived high streets

Payday lenders are a growing presence on Britain’s high streets, as this interactive graphic demonstrates.

The database shows the growth of payday lenders and pawnbroking businesses since 2008 alongside the decline in bank and building society branches, most notably in deprived areas.

The database is based on records of more than 6,000 businesses in town-centre retail properties surveyed since 2008 by the Local Data Company and matched to the English indices of deprivation, a government measure of neighbourhood poverty levels.

Methodology: The mean deprivation scores were calculated by matching each business’ postcode to the population-weighted deprivation score for the lower-level super output area in which the outlet is located. Companies were coded as new openings if they were not recorded by Local Data Company researchers in 2008 but were recorded in subsequent years. Companies not recorded in 2008 but present in subsequent years were coded as new openings. Companies recorded in each survey year were coded as trading continuously. Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, and Bradford & Bingley branches rebranded as Santander were re-coded as trading continuously.