? Retail guru issues Cameron-commissioned report
? Calls for planning changes to aid town centres
? Recommends free parking and annual market days
? One in seven high street shops now empty
Retail expert Mary Portas has set out her vision for Britain's high streets, warning that "after many years of erosion, neglect and mismanagement" they will "disappear forever" unless urgent action is taken.
She has recommended a range of planning policy incentives along with a new tax on car parks in out-of-town malls, as well as free parking in town centres to lure shoppers back to the high street.
The long-awaited review from Portas, known for her TV series Mary Queen of Shops and Mary Queen of Frocks, sets out 28 recommendations to breathe new life into Britain's ailing high streets. She wants to get town centres running like businesses, by strengthening the management of high streets through new "town teams" and encouraging new markets. She proposed an annual national market day where budding entrepreneurs can try their hand at running a retail business. "Why not rent out tables for a tenner and get everyone involved?" Marks & Spencer started as a market stall.
Another key point is levelling the playing field with out-of-town malls by ensuring a strong town centre-first approach in planning and encouraging large retailers to show their support for high streets.
Portas said: "I don't want to live in a Britain that doesn't care about community. And I believe that our high streets are a really important part of pulling people together in a way that a supermarket or shopping mall, however convenient, however entertaining and however slick, just never can."
During the last seven months Portas met hundreds of retailers, property developers and town planners. The recession and changing shopping habits have taken their toll on the high street where more than one in seven shops stand empty, figures from the Local Data Centre showed in September. Vacancy rates have doubled in the last two years.
She proposed "Swapshops" where people can exchange and sell goods for money or services; turning vacant units into schools, gyms and nurseries; and bringing back bingo to the high street.
Experts welcomed the report, although some said it did not go far enough and would not save the high street. Christine Cross, chief retail adviser to PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: "Certainly the revival of town markets for both food and non-food would stimulate small producers to focus on the consumer and provide some additional theatre on the high street. The questions are around speed and practicality of implementation. We have already flagged that many retailers are finding they have too much space on the high street, as out of town and online retail grows, and reinvigorating town centres that rely on expensive and minimal car parking is a real challenge. Tax breaks need to be given to chains as well as independent entrepreneurs to stimulate the market."
Jonathan De Mello, head of CBRE's retail consultancy, said: "While some of the proposals seem reasonable, these measures alone will not be sufficient to 'save' the high street. The success of out-of-town centres in recent years is largely down to shoppers voting with their feet, and retailers choosing to trade in such centres as a result. Making it more difficult for these centres to trade ? which seems to be a key element of the Portas review ? would be self defeating, as it is unlikely that these retailers will make wholesale changes to their location strategy as a result."
The report was commissioned by David Cameron in May, who said he was delighted that Portas had "produced such a clear vision on how we can create vibrant and diverse town centres and breathe life back into our high streets". The government will publish its response next spring.
"Local shops will welcome this important report," said James Lowman, chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores. "It puts the focus on a crisis facing our high streets and sets out a blueprint for government action. We will now work to make sure these recommendations are implemented as fast as possible. Customers want to use their local high street and are increasingly doing so, but rising costs and competition with cheap-to-build out-of-town retail parks are skewing the market and making it harder for retailers in town."
A Labour party spokesperson said: "As well as the longer term problems Mary Portas has identified, the government's decision to cut too far too fast is hurting the high street and the wider economy. If Mary Portas' experience and ideas are to bear fruit in revitalising our high streets ? which we all want to see ? then David Cameron and George Osborne must wake up to the damage their economic policy is causing families and traders alike."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/13/portas-high-streets-disapper
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