The future of retail on the high street over the next decade was laid out somewhat starkly in the Grimsey Review 2 which was unveiled at the Local Government Association’s annual conference in Birmingham on Wednesday (July 4).
According to the report, high streets of the future will need to shift the focus onto housing, leisure, education, the arts and commercial office space, with less reliance on retail. “We have to accept that there is already too much retail space in the UK, and that bricks and mortar retailing can no longer be the anchor for thriving high streets and town centres,” stated Bill Grimsey, previously chief executive of Wickes and Iceland. “Town centres need to be repopulated as community hubs.” The Review also recommended that there should be an overhaul of the business rates system.
Commenting, Jo Williams, owner of independent gift shop Joco Interiors in Nuneaton said: “I would welcome a reduction in business rates as it’s a huge cost. The local car parking charges are a huge issue too. Several local retail parks offering free parking, and local smaller towns are also much cheaper.”
Michael Weedon, managing director of retail research company exp2, says that there are no easy solutions to the problems facing retail. “If there were we would have acted on them by now,” he states. “The Grimsey Review stresses one key requirement though, and it’s one that Mary Portas knew in 2011, and every BID manager knows now, which is that town centres need local leadership to help them transforn.”
Continues Michael: “Blaming business rates for retail woes is easy, and Grimsey 2 has done it again. But it is only one part of a tangle of troubles. What is needed is a real, workable, plan for this tax that the government can actually implement. General suggestions get us no further forward.”
The original Grimsey Review was published five years ago in 2013, and followed the controversial Mary Portas review two years earlier.
Top: High streets came under the spotlight again this week following the publication of the Grimsey Review.
