Bring back street benches and loos to attract more shoppers, retailers urged
SOCIAL AFFAIRS EDITOR THE REMOVAL of seats and benches from shops and high streets in order to maximise retail space is transforming towns for the worse, a report warns.
The decline of basic amenities such as street benches and seating in shops could be costing the UK billions, the study has found. And those who suffer most are millions of older people who are reluctant to venture into shopping areas, despite having more disposable income than previous generations.
The study found that the absence of somewhere to sit down is having a devastating effect on the lives of the elderly, increasing their sense of isolation by deterring them from going out.
The report, to be published this week, was commissioned by the care and housing charity Anchor which is launching a campaign to persuade retailers and councils to provide seating.
It calculates that the lack of basic measures to improve accessibility for older people could be costing retailers £3.8 billion a year in lost business.
The lack of seats in shops and high streets is part of a wider trend in which seating has been removed from bus stops and even railway stations, along with the closure of public lavatories.
The study, by the International Longevity Centre UK, concludes that the absence of seats in shops could help explain what economists have dubbed the “retirement consumption puzzle” – the fact that spending declines with age even though people are often better off than when they were younger.
It links lower spending in old age with accessibility and calculates, for example, that older people with mobility problems spend 16 per cent less on clothing and 11.5 per cent less on leisure than those of the same age with no difficulty getting around but, crucially, no less on essentials such as groceries.
That suggests that for many the barrier is not cost but accessibility. The report concludes that the impact will increase in the coming years as the elderly population grows.
“It is vital that all communities, large and small, better understand the changing demographics of their inhabitants,” it states. “The design of shops can prevent or encourage access to the high street and thus foster spending.
“Local transport infrastructure can also determine whether an older person is capable of even making the journey to their high street, and the actual design of the high street itself can be reviewed in order to make it more accessible for an older population.”