“If you don’t like change,” a famous army general once warned, “you are going to like irrelevance even less.”
While huge structural changes continue to sweep the high street, lessons like this seem oddly not to be registering with policy makers.
During my 45-year career on the high street I saw many changes. And I learned to embrace them. But today we stand at a crossroads seemingly unable to decide which road to take. We’re not embracing change; we’re running scared of it.
Seen through the eyes of a millennial generation it’s obvious that today’s high street is lagging behind the pace of change. Shopping is swiftly gravitating towards online and mobile devices; Google Glass is a revolution building momentum and out of town mall culture continues to displace shoppers from traditional high street settings.
Yet there’s little sign of the status quo giving way to big, step change solutions. Most people by and large still view the high street as a shopping destination, the Treasury still sees it as a cash cow and we pay the highest business rates in the EU, planning laws still frustrate communities and act against the best interests of local economies, and councils continue to plough millions of taxpayers’ money into speculative retail-led regeneration schemes.
On the face of it, very little has changed in terms of how local and central government view high streets since 2006. But consumer behaviour and the loss of thousands of retail jobs tells a very different story.
This disconnect has troubled me for some time. The high street has been a lifelong passion for me and I don’t believe we’ll save it by papering over the cracks. Peppa Pig, Chas’n’Dave and other gimmicks are not the answer.
That’s why I’ve decided to embark on my own independent review. I’ve brought together a team of experts to grasp the nettle. We won’t duck the big issues and we’re looking at a long-term, complete solution for our high streets.
I’m doing this off my own back because I want to put something back and I’m not prepared to just watch high streets wither away and communities lose out. I think we have a choice between accepting irreversible decline or building a very different high street to what we have now.
I start from a position of recognizing that retail is no longer going to be the main driver for high streets. We’re not going back to the credit-fuelled consumer boom of the early noughties and we need to start looking towards post retail frontiers. A new model that reinvents high streets to suit community needs. Retail, of course, will always play a part, but it will need to be complemented by other things. Health, leisure, education and housing will play a much bigger role.
Over the next 10-weeks our team will be looking at the major issues, inviting submissions from a wide range of people with a stake in the high street and ultimately producing a substantial report with recommendations that we will present to the leaders of all three main political parties. Our aim is to present the high street in a different light, not as something facing inevitable decline that can only get worse. But as a key British institution that has to undergo radical change and with Government support can continue to play a vital role in enriching communities for years to come.
If you have views on the future of the high street, please email your thoughts to: highstreetreview@gmail.com
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