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The Radio4 programme is quite correct,you only have to look at Dover, The Hare & Hounds, The Crown & Sceptre, The Prince of Orange and the Royal Oak, Whitfield all closed. Many of those remaining are on the market awaiting new tenants.
There are a number of reasons for all these closures by far the major factor has been the smoking ban, the Government's argument was that those who didn't smoke would again start frequenting pubs, that simply did not happen, the opposite occurred the smokers started drinking at home and the non-smokers remained at home. Town centre pubs were not affected as much but the community pub bore the brunt of the ban especially those who had no facilities for outside smoking shelters.
Cheap supermarket beer has been with us for a long time and although its effects upon the trade were to a certain extent minimal the smoking ban was catastrophic.
Binge drinking takes place generally at weekends when youngsters go out for a good time. They tend to frequent places like Wetherspoons who sell their products cheaper than the average independent licensee can buy it for.
The pub companies themselves charge excessive rents £400 - £500 per week is not unusual for a medium sized pub. Couple this to other costs such as light & heating ,repairs, renewals and the monstrous business rate and it is not difficult to work out why so many once thriving houses are closing.
We now have the situation where we walk up the High Street with the smokers congregated outside, flicking their cigarette ends and using the sort of language which is offensive to a lot of people.
I should be quite interested to here the opinion of others regarding this issue.