Ni Trade
Breathing new life into the high street
Mary Portas ‘Queen of Shops’ calls for joined up action to rejuvenate our town centres
In May last year, Prime Minister David Cameron appointed retail expert and TV personality Mary Portas to lead an independent review into the future of our high streets. Amid a blaze of publicity, the long awaited review was published last month. Media commentators were quick to respond to the report’s findings - some questioned the government’s motives in appointing a celebrity to lead such a project, while others looked in detail at the findings and found them to be contradictory. There is, however, a huge amount of support for Portas’ vision for regeneration. The only trouble, is retailers are going to have to wait until the spring to hear the Government’s response in full, despite calls to bring any announcement forward. On publication of the review, Portas said: “I want to put the heart back into the centre of our High Streets, re-imagined as destinations for socialising, culture, health, wellbeing, creativity and learning. Places that will develop and sustain new and existing markets and businesses. The new High Streets won’t just be about selling goods.” While in a difficult economic climate, where shops stand empty on high streets and even long established names have ceased trading, it might be difficult to see this as any more than an ideal, it can’t be denied that a positive, pro-active response to regeneration is the only way forward. Yes, our high streets have suffered from the increasing number of out of town shopping centres, the rise of the internet, increasing rents, the credit crunch and recession…. but rather than believe everything we read about the ‘death’ of the high street, we should instead focus on a retail experience that can’t be matched elsewhere. Leading market research company, Mintel's Director of Retail Richard Perks, commented: "Portas has 28 detailed proposals, but look behind that and the
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thrust of the report is very sensible. Granted there’s the dose of hyperbole that just seems unavoidable these days - the high street is certainly not in terminal decline, it may not even be in crisis. What’s happening at the moment is a contraction which is almost entirely due to the recession. And in tough times that’s what happens. The vacancy rates we hear so much about are mostly in secondary and tertiary sites because when high streets contract there is a general move to primary sites. “But people still want to shop - that’s why major shopping centres are so successful. And what is a development like Westfield’s at Stratford but a brand new high street?
“So that is why Mary Portas is absolutely spot on when she says that high
streets that want to survive must invest. Ideas such as more markets are excellent, because they add more excitement to the high street. No-one owes a retailer a living. No-one owes a high street a living. Consumers go to where they are best served - and that is as true of retailers as it is of high streets. A high street that gets no investment has no future." Rupert Eastell, Head of Retail at Baker Tilly, however, is not convinced that
the recession is entirely to blame: “Retailers are being squeezed by increased rates and reduced traffic, and something needs to be done to help our high streets.
“The Portas report provides a call to action at a critical time. Regardless of whether you love her or hate her, Mary Portas’ report should stimulate debate about the future of the British high street and if it leads to just one high street making changes for the better, it will be a success. Portas makes sensible and deliverable recommendations in her report, but change is not down to her. If anything, it is clear that councils, community partnerships, local chambers of commerce and businesses must work together, take an honest look at their local high street, and make the tough decisions about the changes necessary for positive momentum.”
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