High streets urged to work together
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Analysts KPMG has encouraged high street stores to work together to ensure town centres survive.
Commenting on the ‘Portas Pilot’ scheme, in which 12 towns were granted £100,00 each to improve the high street, Helen Dickinson, head of UK retail at KPMG said unsuccessful candidates must continue to work together and keep with the community spirit. She called for wider reforms to the issues facing retailers, including the rethink of business rates.
“We must not be blind to the elephant in the room. The retail sector itself is undergoing fundamental structural change, as evidenced by the ongoing retrenchment of chain retailers to higher volume locations. The demise of many troubled UK high streets is due to the proliferation of obsolete tertiary or poor secondary sites and the closure of stores by service (as opposed to retail) operators whose services are electronically transferrable and hence have moved their operations online,” she explained.
“Local authorities will need to be flexible when considering change of use applications, viewing them in the context of what the modern High Street looks like now, and not basing their decision on the stereotypical mix of shops that we were used to seeing in the past. Going forward, whilst schemes such as Portas Pilots may offer some short term fixes, the government must tackle the underlying issues that negatively affect all retailers”.
Dickinson warned some British high streets will ‘simply not survive’ despite the new ‘Portas Pilot’ scheme announced during the weekend. Under the scheme, 12 towns are to receive £100,000 of government money, which has been dubbed ‘Portas Pilot’ due to Mary Portas’ involvement. Bedford, Bedminster, Croydon, Dartford, Liskeard, Margate, Market Rasen, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Nelson, Stockport, Stockton-on-Tees and Wolverhampton were picked to receive the grant, which would be used to also promote the centres.
However, with 370 councils applying for the grant, Dickinson has said the opportunity is a ‘golden ticket’ for the selected town centres.
“What now for the other high streets across Britain, who face the same challenges, but without funding and without help? While unsuccessful bidders will automatically be considered for the next 15 places released on the Portas Pilots scheme, communities must not pin their long term hopes for their high street on securing funding second time around,” she added.