We need a plan to build a future for the high street
The days are getting longer, we have a pathway out of lockdown and there’s a real sense of hope that we can soon get back to the way things used to be. The question now, is, what happens next?
Take the high street. Many of our most-loved brands have vanished in the last year. No-one wants to see shuttered buildings which is why I and my fellow consumer rights experts are working with the powers-that-be on what might happen next.
Here are a few thoughts.
MAKE ONLINE BUSINESSES PAY
We’ve all turned to online shops to get us through lockdown – but at what price?
Online shops don’t pay the same level of business ‘rates’ – the tax high street shops pay depending on the value of the shop. Leaving aside warehouse costs, they don’t have the same heating, staffing and maintenance costs, so it’s not a level playing field.
Taxing online shops more is clearly the answer – though they’ll try to pass that cost on to us.
So would we all be prepared to pay a bit more for the luxury of ordering online, in order to have a cheaper, healthy high street?
THE HIGH STREET EXPERIENCE
The problem of what to do with empty shops is a significant one. One option is to turn them in to ‘hubs’ where shopping can still be an experience. If that sounds a bit pretentious, then there are some practical reasons for doing this.
Take trying on clothes. Buying online means we have no changing rooms. But if we could order a range of sizes and colours to a local shop where we could try them on, browse a returns rack and get a viewpoint from a mate (glass of prosecco optional) then wouldn’t that be more fun?
The same goes for make-up and perfume – which really need to be sampled in person.
This would reduce the huge costs of delivery – which generates hundreds of thousands of complaints – and would make shopping fun again.
REDESIGN TOWN CENTRES
High streets and town centres have been at the mercy of the roads that run through them for decades. The jury is out on whether passing cars drive business, but if we’re going to have a good browse and a chat, maybe it’s time to be bolder and consider partial or full-time pedestrianisation. If supermarkets move more towards deliveries, that gives us a load of extra car parking spaces too.
Lockdown has forced many forms of public transport to be part or fully subsidised, so now is the time to decide if we want to make the switch back to buses, trains, trams and bikes.
ENCOURAGE BUSINESS DIVERSITY
Leaving aside turbulent council Zoom meetings, communities can really come together by suggesting to elected representatives what they’d like from their high street. So rather than using a huge online travel website, why not encourage a local travel agent to set up store? Or shops providing produce from the area?
By working with landlords, communities can keep shops’ doors open. An old trick for vacant lots used in some cities is to give them to artists for free for a set period of time. We Brits love a market – so why not fill the lost stores with art and crafts that you can admire, buy or just have peek at?
BANKS, POST, LIBRARIES AND HUBS
My inbox is groaning with the weight of complaints about closed banks, post offices and libraries.
I’m working with other consumer organisations to halt this tide but, in the meantime, we’d like to see businesses, councils and local communities using these businesses for new and creative ventures. We could have independent financial and debt advisors in banks, for example, or make greater use of libraries for coffee mornings or activities for older and younger people.
■ I’d love to hear your views on saving the high street. Contact press@resolvergroup.com and get help at resolver.co.uk