‘Maybe every town just can’t have a high street’

MPs will today be presented with a weighty tome on the future of the high street and town and city centres penned by Bill Grimsey, a former chief executive of retail chain Iceland and building supplies business Wickes. It paints a grim picture.

It suggests there are 20,000 businesses at risk and 40,000 empty shops across the country and calls for urgent action to reverse the trend.

A grim picture indeed, but also a familiar one for many communities who have seen their town centres struggle.

“Dewsbury has always had the market to attract people but a few years back they built an out of town retail development right on the edge of the town centre,” says Lindsay Whitaker, development manager of the Federation of Small Businesses.

“What it effectively did was shift the town centre because they were offering people free parking, so businesses around the market area are lacking footfall and the market traders as well.”

The FSB has been pressing councils across the region to be more flexible about business rates and parking charges to help town centre businesses, issues both raised too by the Grimsey report alongside the way planning laws are used.

Television personality and retail guru Mary Portas covered the same ground in her Government-commissioned review of the future of the high street.

There is no shortage of alarm bells ringing and a growing sense that action is needed as major changes in the way consumers behave have consequences for town centres.

Where once the debate focused on the “out of town versus town centre” tension described in Dewsbury, the rapid growth of internet retailing is posing new questions.

“It is not a homogenous picture,” says Cathy Barnes, professor of retail innovation at Leeds Metropolitan University. “What we have had in Leeds is Trinity Leeds opening and increasing footfall in the city centre – that’s on the high street.

“Trinity is a good example of the focus of the high street being in large conurbations whereas satellite towns are suffering because it is easy for us to hop in in a car and find ourselves in a 
city centre.

“If all we want to do is purchase something we can do that online, if we want to shop for fun we will go to a large retail centre.”

Encouraging smaller town centres to foster independent traders is often suggested as a way forward but Prof Barnes believes that will have a limited impact.

“Yes there are farm stores and farmers’ markets which we all love to dip into but that’s not the mainstream and its not where we are going to do the bulk of our shopping.

“Maybe we just have to accept every town in every part of the country can’t have a high street.”

A common feature of recipes for a high street revival is securing new investment and giving new powers and responsibilities to councils. Grimsey advocates a levy on major chains to invest in high streets.

Business advisory firm Deloitte recently compiled a report on the future of York city centre for the local authority.

Will Martin, assistant director for real estate at Deloitte’s Leeds office, is unconvinced for the need for more powers, pointing to York’s recent success in securing new Primark stores for both the city centre and the out of town Monk’s Cross development.

Councils in Yorkshire are also beginning to introduce “community infrastructure levies” – effectively a tax on property developments that could be a source of funds to support high streets.

Mr Martin says: “If councils identify a project in the city centre they want to fund they can use 
the levy for that, providing it meets the rules.

“Even if the money is coming from houses built on the outskirts if improvements are needed 
in the centre they will support that.”

On the levy on retail chains, he adds: “A lot of the big players are already investing in town centres and many of the big mixed used schemes are anchored by the major retailers.”

And there is evidence across the region that local authorities are already taking a pro-active approach in supporting their centres.

Grimsey suggests it is time to dispense with a “nostalgic” view of high streets focused on retail and instead make them hubs for health, education, arts and leisure as well as shopping.

Bradford, which has often been criticised over delays to the proposed Westfield shopping centre, is already taking that broader approach.

It has used more than £17m of Government money, matched by council funds, to set up a “growth zone” in the city centre offering breaks on business rates to new or growing businesses. So far it has approved 57 applications promising the creation of 244 jobs.

“We have recognised that city centres and town centres aren’t just about retail, they are about business, leisure and culture and each one of those feeds on the other,” says council leader David Green.

“The growth zone is about bringing new businesses into 
the city centre and also support those businesses that are already here to expand and take on 
new staff.

“We have also had a deliberate policy of bringing more of our own staff into Bradford city centre to increase footfall.”

The growth zone is part of a wider commitment to improve the fabric of the city centre – in simple terms making it a nicer place to be.

The City Park is one of the most eye catching elements of the plan and the authority is in talks over the future of the empty Odeon cinema building which it is looking to bring back into use.

Sheffield has used £100,000 offered by the Government in response to the Portas report to breathe new life into the Chapel Walk area of the city.

It invested in “Birds Yard”, a converted shop unit providing a platform for small retailers to showcase their products. It has already been used by 50 businesses and given shoppers a new reason to visit the area.

The council has also set out a new vision for the city centre mixing retail with business and housing.

Its desire to support the city centre brought it into a high profile conflict with retailer Next last year after it refused planning permission for an out of town development – a decision later overturned on appeal.

The council recently abandoned a partnership with developer Hammerson to create a major new shopping scheme in the city but Sheffield’s Chamber of Commerce believes there is appetite in the retail sector to invest in the city.

“An independent retail audit has shown there are potential requirements for more than 500,000 sq ft of new shopping from retailers not represented in Sheffield city centre with many not represented in Meadowhall,” says Robert Lane, chairman of the Sheffield Chamber retail forum.

“Whilst some national retailers are reducing their number of branches in smaller towns, partly due to the growth of internet shopping, they will always need to be located in the major conurbations, such as Sheffield.”

In Hull too, there is optimism. Chris Noble, from commercial property agents NT3, says he is seeing a lot of interest in retail units.

“We have got a lot of small landlords in Hull who are quite happy to let people have a go. Someone might want to start a nail bar but not have a lot of financial backing. A lot of commercial landlords might not be willing to take them on but in Hull we do have landlords who are willing to give people a chance.”

There is no shortage of efforts going in to giving high streets across Yorkshire a future but it is clear that not all can survive the digital retail revolution.

And it is consumers who will ultimately decide the future of high streets as they choose how and where they spend their time and money.

What do you think?

The death of the high street has been predicted for years. Ever since the first out of town shopping centre opened its doors there have been fears that the old way of doing things is on its way out.

In the last decade, as more shops become vacant, experts from both business and government have put forward their plans for a revival, but, on the basis local people tend to know what’s best for their own community, we want to know what you think.

Tell us how you would inject new life into your high street by commenting on this story.