Local Councils failure to plan is selling out our High Streets!
Listening to the Today programme on Radio 4 last Monday morning, I was interested to listen to a feature about the issues with our fading high streets. Bill Grimsey – famous for developing retail giants Wickes and Iceland – has put together an independent report that lambasts local government for its failure to address one of the most important – and harmful – social revolutions of our time.
As an example, just by asking every local authority in the UK whether it had a business plan in place to focus on rebuilding the High Street, 50% did not!
Don’t you think that’s extraordinary? If a business were to go to the bank and ask for funding – without a plan to show how it was all going to work – they’d be laughed straight out of the front door! What are our local councils thinking? Or not thinking, more to the point. Surely I wasn’t the only business owner to be utterly astonished by this. However do they propose to bring about change if there isn’t even a plan?
There has to be a place for the High Street
Sure the internet is great – I’m an Amazon devotee, I’ll admit – and out of town shopping is here to stay.
But please don’t tell me that we don’t all want to see our High Streets returned to their former glory? A place where independent retailers can be ‘different’ and more interesting than the norm. Lively cafés to meet with friends. Fresh and local produce available right on our doorsteps. There has to be room for it all. It’s a place where every generation can connect and which responds to our essentially social nature – and we need to preserve it.
So if you are interested in supporting your fellow business owners in the retail sector, take a look at Bill’s website at www.vanishinghighstreet.com, and maybe get hold a copy of his excellent book ‘Sold Out’.