Join the Local Movement: Save Our Independents

Save Our Independents: A New National Movement to Take Back Britain’s Local Economy

Across the UK, independent cafés, shops, pubs, studios, bookshops, barbers and market traders are disappearing at a rate our country has never seen before.
Rising costs, punitive taxes, corporate dominance and years of government neglect have pushed thousands of locally owned businesses to the brink — and many over it.

Every time one closes, something far bigger is lost:
connection, identity, culture, and the everyday magic that holds our towns and neighbourhoods together.

Today, Xplore is launching a national movement to reverse that decline — Save Our Independents — a campaign uniting people, places and businesses to take back control of our local economy.

Why This Matters Now

Independent businesses aren’t just places to buy things.
They are where Britain happens.

They are where friendships form, loneliness drops, ideas start, jobs grow, and communities feel alive.
But the latest changes to VAT and business rates have made survival even harder, creating a silent crisis that government won’t address — and corporations won’t fix.

If nothing changes, the UK risks becoming a hollowed-out landscape of chain stores, delivery depots, vape shops, and betting outlets.
Local character will vanish. Local ownership will vanish. Local pride will vanish.

Unless we act.

A New Solution: Built by People, Not Corporations

Xplore is launching three major national actions under the Save Our Independents banner:

1. A New National Independent Gift Card

A gift card that only works in Certified Independent businesses — cafés, pubs, restaurants, shops, barbers, markets and experiences across the UK.
Every pound spent goes directly into local communities, not offshore profits.

Our national goal: £100 million committed to independents for 2026.

2. The Alternative Map to Google & Apple

We are building a new national map of Britain that only shows real, locally owned businesses and the communities that make them special.
No ads. No chains. No algorithms deciding what matters.

Just real places, discovered and recommended by real people.

3. Greg’s ENDURANCE Challenge — 2,000 Miles for 250,000 Signatures

To make this impossible to ignore, Xplore’s founder, Greg Barden, is taking on a 2,000-mile weighted endurance challenge — 20 miles a day carrying 25kg — symbolising the crushing burden independents now face.

He will walk through 100 towns across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man to gather 250,000 signatures calling on the government to fix VAT and business rates.

This is not a stunt.
This is sacrifice — to show the country what independents are being forced to endure.

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