High street’s been slaughtered and the killers got away free
HAVING been taken unawares by the strange golden globe which recently appeared in the sky, I hotfooted it into town at the weekend for some summer clothes.
At least I think it was town – it felt more like a weird lunar landscape, empty of people and populated by tanning salons and charity shops.
Of course, it hasn’t happened overnight – it’s been a drip by miserable drip over the past 10 years as the department stores and big chains moved out and the tat shops and cubicles mending cracked mobile phone screens moved in.
There are few things which can make you feel quite so depressed as a Saturday afternoon mooch around the town when there’s nowhere to mooch to.
And I’m young(ish) with a family to go home to. We must never underestimate the impact on those who live alone when their town centre – the heart of their community – fades away.
Our BHS went last year and Marks & Spencer is hanging by a thread. The only ‘big boys’ still straddling the high street are Primark and Sports Direct. And for months now there has been a flood of stories about the death of the high street, with about 50,000 retail job losses since the start of this year. But our high street isn’t dying. It has been murdered. And its killers are getting away scot free. Changes to the business rates have aided and abetted online retailers like Amazon in their murderous spree – while leaving bricks and mortar shops defenceless. How can it be right that a fulfilment centre for Amazon pays just £65 per square metre while nearby Waterstones pay 1,100% more – £765 per square metre? Answer: It can’t. Meanwhile, online retailers pay a tiny amount of VAT on products compared with our town centre shops. Online
Shoppers don’t have money and parking fees are crippling
retailers and local authorities have blood on their hands for the assault on our high streets.
And that’s before you even get to crippling parking fees – often contracted out to greedy enforcement companies. Then there are the cuts to public transport.
On top of it all we have shoppers who, after eight years of austerity and dramatic falls in the standard of living, just don’t have the money to spend, even if they wanted to.
The Mirror’s High Street Fightback campaign this week is a small step towards making our politicians care about the issue.
For too long it has been invisible. Either because the leafy constituencies of government ministers have been largely unaffected.
Or because they’re unable to understand how it makes people feel when the heart is ripped out of their town.
They can’t be allowed to ignore it any longer.