Retail guru Mary Portas has reiterated claims that the rise of supermarkets has put high street bakeries into decline and warned the high street is in a critical condition. The Portas Review, officially published today (Tuesday), reprinted figures from the 2008 Competition Commission, which found that the number of bakeries has declined from around 25,000 in 1950 to around 8,000 by 2000. In her introduction to the widely-anticipated report she said: “The days of a high street populated by independent butchers, bakers and candlestick-makers are, except in the most exceptional circumstances, over.”