Ailing high streets must become social hubs to survive, say MPs
BRITAIN’S town centres can only survive with fewer shops and more cinemas, pubs and theatres, MPs said yesterday.
High streets must adapt by converting retail space into leisure, the Commons influential housing, communities and local government committee warned.
It said town centres must become places where people meet up to have fun, swapping “retail-focused activities” for “greater social interaction, community spirit and local identity”.
Committee chairman Clive Betts said: “It is likely the heyday of the high street primarily as a retail hub is at an end.
“However, this need not be its death knell. Local authorities must get to grips with the fact that their town centres need to change.
“They need to innovate, setting out a long-term strategy for renewal, reconfiguring the town centre and finding new ways of using buildings.”
The inquiry follows fears of ghost towns as stores close after losing business to online sales. Since 2008, 34 medium and large retailers have gone into administration, hitting more than 12,997 stores and 178,576 jobs. Big names forced to close branches or shed jobs include HMV, Maplin, Poundworld and Toys “R” Us.
The committee said business rates are stacked unfairly against town centre shops. It wants an online sales tax and green taxes on deliveries and packaging.
It said struggling enterprises should be helped by the Government’s £675million Future High Streets Fund but stressed that stores should open for longer, use personal shoppers to attract more custom, and become smaller.
Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley – who last year bought up the ailing House of Fraser and Evans Cycles and has a 30 per cent stake in Debenhams and French Connection – told MPs a House of Fraser store he bought was “too much and too big” and said its upper floors should become homes.
Mike Cherry of the Federation of Small Businesses said: “The challenge now is how to work positively to enhance our high streets and town centres in this new landscape.”