‘Shopping is not the way to save the high street’

Shopping is not the answer to solve the problem of vacant town centre premises, an expert review has claimed.

Retail consultant Bill Grimsey, former chief executive of Wickes and Iceland and head of the independent Grimsey Review which is to be published for the second time next month, told the Scotland’s Towns Partnership annual general meeting in Edinburgh that town centres should not try to compete with out-of-town shopping parks and online retailers.

In next month’s Grimsey Review 2, he says town centres need to be regarded as independent businesses, taking into account the community and the local economy.

He said: “Towns in the UK in the 21st century will not progress in the future if they continue to try to compete with out-oftown shopping centres or online. Shopping is not the answer for town centres.”

Grimsey’s first report was submitted to the UK Government in 2013, in response to Mary Portas’s Westminster-commissioned retail review, which he believed did not go far enough. “All towns need plans which look at the place in business terms,” he added.