New Report Claims COVID-19 Could Be The Disruptive Shock The High Street Needs

A new review of the state of the U.K. high street is published today. Titled, “Build, Back, Better”, it is the third such review undertaken by the former chief executive of Wickes, Focus and The Big Food Group, Bill Grimsey, the first two being published in 2013 and 2018 respectively.

And alongside the Mary Portas high street review of 2011, they have undeservedly, largely gathered dust in Whitehall, despite containing many sound recommendations. However, as the report acknowledges, we are now experiencing an entirely different paradigm, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a wholesale shift in attitudes.

As the report states, research from YouGov reveals that just 9% of the population want to return to the pre-pandemic “normal”, suggesting that the vast majority of us wish to see this as an opportunity for change for the better as we emerge from the grip of the virus.

The report concludes that town centres will need a radical shift in power from central government to local communities if high streets are to remain relevant and thrive. The team behind the report, led by Grimsey, argued that “only localism on steroids” could turn around many failing high streets. 

Somewhat worryingly, the report also revealed that almost 50% of retailers are at risk of failure, further emphasising the need to switch to a model of local empowerment.

Grimsey said, “We need to build local economies around people who have a proper stake in their communities, not distant investors and absent landlords who only see them as a number on their portfolio investment.”

Recommendations

As we have become accustomed to, the report contains a number of recommendations, most notable of which include:

Transferring power to communities: such as a reduction in streets and a significant increase in green space, parks and town squares.

Local leadership: candidates for office selected on the basis of having a different mindset and the ability to embrace change.

Planning: giving local authorities the opportunity to develop an appropriate proposition to attract people to live, work, play and visit a unique town.

Transport: recognising that town centres must no longer be designed around the car and making the 20-minute neighbourhood a central principal of the planning system.

However, in an intensely personal reflection on the state of retail and our high streets, Grimsey, one partially responsible for the cloning of our town centres, concluded by saying, “It’s a bitter pill to swallow when you realise that what you spent your whole life building now needs to be unpicked in order to build back a better place. This was celebrated as progress. But a new generation now sees things differently.”

We can only hope that with initiatives such as this and the High Streets Task Force, we will come out of the coronavirus pandemic with the motivation to build a better high street, town centre and ultimately, community. And perhaps, that will be our lasting legacy.

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