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Forum of Private Business talks Portas Review

Robert Downes, policy advisor at The Forum of Private Business, comments on the Portas Review.

There is absolutely no doubt that Great British high street has taken a hit as a consequence of the cultural shifts affecting modern society.

Where once the public would head to the local high street for their shopping requirements – home to the butcher, the baker, and just about every other shop you can think of – now the average Joe will all too often head to the nearest out of town shopping centre for their needs.

Last year ministers asked retail guru Mary Portas to compile a report on how to revive the UK’s flagging high street economy, suffering as it is from reduced footfall and high vacancy rates.

And so while we have welcomed the Government’s recent announcement that it is to accept virtually all of the recommendations in the review, including better management of town centres by special ‘town teams’, affordable car parking, adopting a town centre ‘first’ approach in planning, and disincentives for landlords who leave shops empty, we say it has not gone far enough in key areas.

The issues of parking and business rates, we believe, are absolutely crucial to the future success of the high street, and the small, independent retailers who ply their trade there.

The Government says it will ask councils to ‘look closely’ at town centre car parking charges. This is simply not enough. Councils earn money from this and are hardly likely to give this income stream up in the face of huge austerity cuts elsewhere in their budgets.

Essentially, the Government must fund this initiative if it is serious about nursing the high street back to health. Unless car parking charges are abolished, the high street will never be able to compete on a like-for-like basis with out-of-town centres, where parking is universally free.

For hard pressed consumers, if it is a choice between paying even a nominal charge to park when they visit the high street, or paying nothing at all to visit an ‘out of town’, it will be a no brainer for most. Unless this issue is tackled head on everything else is irrelevant.

The Government talks about making UK high streets once more ‘the beating hearts’ of communities up and down the country. For this to happen though it needs to look at how it can encourage more entrepreneurs to start up businesses there.

We welcome the news that rate relief will be doubled, but only the smallest retailers will benefit from this and only for the next two years. High streets need big shops and big names as much as smaller, independent traders.

This is a also It’s a case of giving with one hand and taking with the other as well, bearing in the mind the imminent rates increase of 5.6% – estimated to be an average of £800 a year more from April.

On one hand we have Communities Minister Grant Shapps saying the Government is embracing the Portas Review, on the other George Osborne is squeezing traders till the pips squeak.

So while it is refreshing to see the Government has welcomed the Portas Review, and clearly understands the importance of the British high street, this is merely the beginning in change for the better.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .