Lockdown a catalyst for

In the third of our Passionate People, Passionate Places series, business editor Graeme Whitfield looks at the challenges facing the region’s town and city centres

EVEN before the coronavirus crisis led to deserted streets and brought the shutters down on hundreds of pubs and shops, the North East’s town and city centres were facing massive challenges.

A decline in the retail sector – caused largely by the growth of online shopping – had seen a number of major shop chains either close outlets in town centres or go out of business altogether. A decline in the casual dining sector only added to the numbers of empty units.

Both of those trends have been accelerated hugely by the coronavirus lockdown.

Department store chain Debenhams went into administration at the start of April and later announced that its South Shields store had closed for good. Chains including Cath Kidston, Laura Ashley, Oasis and Warehouse have gone out of business.

In the restaurant sector, Carluccio’s has been saved by a rescue deal but its site on Newcastle’s Grey Street was one of many that could not be kept open. Casual Dining

Group – owners of the Cafe Rouge, Bella Italia and Las Iguanas brands – is on the brink of collapse.

In the middle of May, research published by Newcastle city centre business improvement district NE1 Ltd, highlighted the scale of the challenge brought about by the coronavirus lockdown.

A survey of city centre businesses found that more than half would be wiped out if the coronavirus lockdown lasted six months, with a similar number closed altogether during the lockdown and only 2% are operating as usual.

When asked to quantify their losses, 59% said they had seen a drop in turnover of between 81% and 100% drop in turnover.

Hope for some town and city centre businesses has come with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement on Monday that some shops could begin to reopen in June.

But other companies will have to wait for a return to business, with bars and restaurants in particular finding it harder to operate in a financially sustainable way while keeping customers socially distanced.

For Stephen Patterson, director of communications at NE1, the events of the last few weeks have exacerbated some of the problems facing town and city centres.

He said: “Covid has been a catalyst – it has increased the rate of change. What we’ve seen over the last eight or nine weeks probably would have taken five or six years to work through.

“There are a lot of discussions going on at national and international levels and the big retailers are really focussed on the sites that will reopen when the restrictions are lifted. We’re in a new environment now with no guarantees. Retailers will reopen sites with good footfall and a decent catchment area so they can make a profit.

“Newcastle, fortunately, fares quite well in those sort of discussions; certainly we’ve tended to escape some of the closures there have been in recent years.

“We’ve also been fortunate in Newcastle that we’ve been looking already at how we use the public realm with things like the experimental closures of Blackett Street. What Covid has done is supercharge those developments and those ‘nice to have’ things are now become essential. Things like wider pavements, better public transport – it’s hard to see how we will go back once those measures are in place.”

Mr Patterson said that reopening the hospitality sector would be