They made smoking illegal in pubs just a short while ago.
I’m not surprised they are losing them. Why go if you can’t enjoy yourself?
On the other hand, a “financial desert” is more than 1.25 mile? Mine is about 3 miles, and I don’t think that’s far.
This is a country where fewer than a quarter of all households posess more than one car and more than a quarter have none. Driving is prohibitively expensive in England, it’s not uncommon to not even have a licence.