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How George Osbourne is making the North South divide wider
Yesterday George Osbourne announced that his long promised Business Rates Reform would become an abdication of responsibility passing the buck onto local Government. The delay in the implementation of the revaluation of properties from 2015 to 2017, announced early in...
Ignore Tory propaganda, the high street tells you where our economy’s really at
Business is booming on the most expensive street in Europe. In one weekend alone, sales of vintage Ferraris, Aston Martins and other motors at Bonhams on London’s Bond Street put almost £13million through the tills. Sales of luxury goods are roaring here and, if you...
The Great Business Rates Robbery
Tax shaming has become the focus of street protests everywhere in recent years. Google, Amazon and Starbucks are just some of the companies that stand accused of tax avoidance. But while there's growing public anger over the financial affairs of multinationals,...
The Tories don’t have a clue about retail realities
Five words. That’s all it took to show just how out of touch this Government had become from the realities facing retailers on the ground. At a time when thousands of shops stood empty around the country and consumer confidence was on the floor, David Cameron’s...
Newstatesman before the Autumn Statement This is Osborne’s last chance to help the ‘go-getters’ on the high street
Over three and a half years ago, with the economy tanking, David Cameron did what all panic-stricken Prime Ministers without a real strategy do. He picked a fight. In this instance, he declared war on the “enemies of enterprise”. Pen pushers, ridiculous rules and...
We must embrace the future or our high streets will be consigned to the past
There was once a time when politicians not only instinctively understood technological change would transform the way we lived, but that they should encourage and attempt to shape this revolution because Britain’s future depended on it. Over 50-years ago now, the...
We’ve let Tesco get too big and now we can’t let it fail
Imagine a world without Tesco. Difficult isn’t it? So ubiquitous is Britain’s biggest retailer that no high street seems right without it. But then didn’t we used to say the same about Woolworths? We shouldn’t underestimate the crisis Tesco currently finds itself...
10 things the Government can do to help the high street
As the new high streets minister, Penny Mordaunt, plans to embark on a national town centre tour, as Labour’s high street advisor here are 10 suggestions on where she should take immediate action to stop the rot, rebuild confidence and help lead a genuine high street...
The high street is crying out for serious policy: let’s take a million small businesses out of paying business rates
When David Cameron and Mary Portas strolled through Camden back in 2011 to launch a review into the future of the high street there was a sense that big ideas were beginning to take shape. Ministers were pushing the plight of our high streets up the agenda and the...
Let’s not exaggerate, we’re not witnessing a high street resurgence
You’d think by now ministers would have learned a lesson from over promising and under-delivering where Britain’s high streets are concerned. But it seems they’re still more concerned with PR and spin over getting to grips with the challenges we face. Two years on...
Local authorities need to embrace fresh thinking to reinvigorate high streets
It was Percy Shelley who once said that, “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world”. Almost 200 years later, a modern interpretation might be that creative thinkers often blaze a trail for policy makers to follow. Nowhere is this truer where the challenge...
How one historic London printers shut up shop because of parking fines By Eva Pascoe
How one historic London printers shut up shop because of parking fines Tower Hamlets shop survived war bombings but was brought low by draconian parking laws that are ruining our high streets A shop closes almost every hour in town centres up and down the country, but...
“Sold Out will make uncomfortable reading, but if you are at all serious about making your High Street a better place, the solution starts here.”
“Bill Grimsey offers a practical and realistic vision for the future of the High Street, which can cater for the needs we really have today.”
“If retailing needs a “Big Bang” moment, then this is a hand grenade of a book” – Joe Cushnan
If you are at all serious about making your High Street a better place, the solution starts here.
In recent years, campaigns have been galvanised to ‘save the High Street’. It seems everyone has a view about how we can revamp our down-at-heel towns and cities. But are they all missing the point?
Veteran retailer Bill Grimsey argues that it is already too late. The High Street as we have grown to know it, is good as dead already. So what happens next?