Last night’s prime time Tonight programme – broadcast on ITV – attempted to get behind the future of high street retail with a hard hitting episode entitled Shopping: The End of the High Street?
Presented by retail advisor Kate Hardcastle, local councils as well as High Street Minister Jake Berry MP came in for some tough criticism, while retailers, both independent and multiple, gave their views on how they were adapting to change.
Online shopping was seen as the biggest competitor to high street retail, but the Minster for High Streets, Jake Berry MP, said that there was no law that the government could pass to stop people shopping online. “Shopping habits are changing and that is no bad thing because it creates new, diverse high streets. I will be looking at the future of the high streets over the next 10, 15, 20 years to see what people want them to be. My own opinion is that when a community comes together with its local council, many of the things that they want to achieve with their local high street can happen. Parking is certainly one of the tools that local authorities can look to adopt to encourage people back on the high street.”
The Minister added that the government has commissioned a new retail review which is due out in early Autumn in time for the Budget in November. “Before the end of the year we want the recommendations to be responsibly in place,” he insisted.
Manchester Metropolitan University’s Professor Cathy Parker emphasised that the high street now has other functions other than retail. “It’s a place to meet friends, to go out to eat and to socialise,” she commented. “Therefore the success of high streets depends on having a good mix. It’s all very well for councils to put out hanging baskets in the summer and fairy lights at Christmas, but they are not tackling the fundamental issues.”
However, not all local councils received criticism. The programme highlighted that some councils were actually very proactive, with Alex Ganotis, Stockport’s Council Leader, investing £1bn to give Stockport’s local high street a facelift. “People want leisure activities, eating destinations and other reasons to get out of the house,” he emphasised.
At Debenhams, spokesperson Richard Cristofoli said that despite three profit warnings this year, the store would still be around at Christmas and that he felt optimistic about its future. “All we ask is a level playing field,” he said. “We pay £80m a year in rates, while the largest online retailer pays a fifth of that for a retail business that is twice as big.”
Independent retailers too, were shown to be doing their best to adapt to survive, with a barber in Holywell, North Wales, introducing a contactless payment policy that saw transactions increase by a third, and a campaigner in Burselm, Stoke-on-Trent, pushing her council to authorise a Wednesday market in order to increase footfall.
Summing up, presenter Kate Hardcastle concluded: “In the end, in order to survive, it is ultimately about the high street re-inventing itself.”
Visit www.itv.com/tonight
Above: Britain’s high streets need to provide local shoppers with plenty of reasons to visit.
