We need to think a lot bigger than this, Brandon
My meeting last week with the new high streets minister, Brandon Lewis, didn’t have auspicious beginnings. A few days previously Brandon appeared in a London newspaper referring to my high street review as “a load of crap”. I was reading the minister’s complimentary remarks when I got a message to say that Brandon urgently wanted to speak to me. It was all a mistake he told me over the phone, he was misquoted and wanted to apologise. “My dad always taught me to listen,” he continued, and that’s why we should meet.
So 48-hours later we sat down in a Westminster meeting room to talk high street policy. My concern with Government high street policy is that it seems at odds with most Tory backbenchers these days. They’re keen to see business rates reform and want to see fairer taxes. Why isn’t the Government? “Business rates are fast becoming for local shops what energy bills are for hardworking families: an ever-increasing expense that’s hard to justify,” wrote Enfield MP Nick De Bois last week.
Surely it’s time Brandon listened to his own party? Apparently not. He thinks the system is fine as it is and even admitted that the revaluation he postponed will see the retail sector lose out. When I put it to him that the only beneficiaries of this delay are the big retailers while small ones, particularly those in the north, will lose out, he just shrugged.
So we moved onto the issue of planning for the future. This was more fertile territory and he accepted our recommendation in the Grimsey Review for local authorities to build a vision for each town. Consultation finished on 15th October, he explained, on a Bill that will require all local authorities to produce high street plans. This sounds promising, although he was strangely hostile to the idea of 20-year plans. He preferred the short-term approach of five-year plans. This is a mistake. We need to move beyond the electoral cycle if we’re going to start making our high streets fit for the 21st century.
No major retailer in this country would undertake strategic reviews and investment decisions based on short-term thinking. And neither should local or central Government.
In our review we spoke of how technology would transform the high street. This is starting to happen. Developments like holograms, staffless shops, robotics and mood pricing are coming down the track and will change the way people shop. It would be crazy not to prepare for this new landscape. There is a limit to what you can achieve in one parliament, as this government is finding out. But focus on the bigger picture and work towards a longer, richer and more imaginative plan and we can make sure our high streets are world leading spaces that will inspire our grandchildren.
Brandon shifted in his chair and said he was confident that Portas Pilots would achieve this. His advisors kept a straight face. We all sensed that politics were at play. Government high street policy is not evolving; it’s standing still, defending three years of failure and protecting its celebrity face.
Brandon said he’d seen my recommendation about creating a dedicated cabinet minister to oversee high streets. He’d be delighted to get the job, he smiled, but didn’t think it would happen. I agreed.
In the month or so he’s held responsibility for the high street, he’s spent most of his time defending the status quo. The future hasn’t got a look in. Betting shops, payday lenders and kebab shops are vital to the high street, he argues. It’s as though he’s standing in the road yelling “stop” to progress.
There are many in his party that are passionate about the high street. Why is that the leadership are so disinterested? Tax policy that penalizes small business and is biased towards big business, planning changes to promote the proliferation of betting shops and the encouragement of short-term thinking. It all seems a long way away from the “high street revolution” that Grant Shapps promised. Did you ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
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