Action can still rescue our town centres

phenomenal growth of online retail. No other country has embraced home shopping like we have, with Britons twice as likely to buy online as Americans.

Eight years ago, I was the minister responsible for looking after our high streets. We launched a blizzard of initiatives designed to re-invigorate our towns, with programmes benefiting from the expertise of retail guru Mary Portas.

Yet I now see that if our high streets are to survive, they are going to need to change. And fast.

So here is my recipe to save the great British High Street: First, lower business rates. I started my printing business in a shop-front location. Amongst my biggest costs were business rates. Since internet retailers don’t have to maintain shop-front locations their cost base is much lower.

Ministers have tinkered with rate reductions and even total exemptions for very small shops. But it is time to go much further and be far more radical.

Second, make town centres “go-to” destinations. Getting a haircut, meeting friends or grabbing a sandwich are things that you can only do in person. So high streets need to re-design themselves as places to visit, either for the sheer convenience of it or because they provide a rewarding experience.

Third, we won’t need as many traditional shops. A huge amount of retail has already moved online. That trend is likely to continue and accelerate.

Rather than bemoaning this situation, and filling empty stores with charity and pound shops, it is better to accept that the shape and size of town centres must change. There are two parts to this solution: Having accepted that we need fewer shops with a more service-based high street, we can use the space more wisely.

The most obvious use is for much-needed housing. This, of course, has the dual benefit of immediately providing more footfall for the remaining shops.

There is not one single solution. Yet, if we do not act far more decisively to secure the future of our town centres, then we will have done ourselves a great national disservice. There is still time to act – but only just.