High street guru Mary Portas has been frustrated in her bid to rejuvenate town centres. Claims that funding initiatives have failed to work one year after the launch of her campaign have somewhat marred her attempts to turn things around, while some critics have claimed that her ideas are “outdated” and fail to address issues at the root of the high street decline.
This week, she has suggested that empty retail properties should be replaced with facilities to benefit local communities, as she believes this would encourage higher volumes of consumers to visit the high street on a regular basis. Crèches, coffee shops and health clinics could all be localised in order to halt the “obsession” with retail shared by most town centres across the UK.
Ms Portas says; “If you look through history, let’s even go back to the Greek agora, towns were about where you met, where you voted – we have been obsessed with high streets being retail.
“In the future we know that cannot be the case, I would imagine [it will be] about 30 per cent retail.
“We need a new vision, we need to trial new ideas and we need to give opportunities to new businesses.”
According to a survey jointly conducted by YouGov and Channel 5, though, it is not Ms Portas the British public blame for the failure of high street rejuvenation plans so far – it is the government. Two thirds of respondents believe that the government has failed to step up in the fight for the high street, and believe it could take further steps both financially and socially.
Worryingly, however, a third of respondents did not believe that their local high street had a future at all.
Should present statistics continue in the same vein, this could certainly become a reality. Just 7 per cent of the research’s respondents claimed to have visited their local high street every day, while only a quarter managed a weekly visit. A further drop in footfall could easily sound the death knell for the high street, and this highlights the fact that any improvements must be undertaken urgently.
Ms Portas argues that the government must present a united front on the issue if any initiatives are to yield positive long term results.
She concludes; “I don’t think there is enough joined up thinking from the government – we need to pull this together.
“We need some clear policies or planning.
“We cannot have a high street policy, with the government saying ‘yes, we believe in it’, and then have the Secretary of State signing off out of town retail.”
Should Ms Portas’ latest suggestions come to fruition, they could see the high street turn away from the retail industry and meet leisure and healthcare demands instead. However, the question is whether a less retail-focused town centre would be as financially sustainable as one which puts the community at its heart.
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