Recently in Retail Category

My last post on the LDC Retail Summit gave rise to a bit of commentary. People really care about what is going to happen to the British high street and it's good to see. I am delighted to report that Bill Grimsey, the extraordinary luminary who spoke up from the floor at the Retail Summit was also, by magic serendipity, appearing at the UKR Forum later in the week. And he caused a bit of a furore at that too!

Bill is the veteran retailer (45 years running - and then having to collapse - such chains as WHS Focus) who has written the seminal work Sold Out which is "a feisty and practical guide" to trends on the high street, rather brilliantly described by one reviewer as the "big bang" on the debate. He is someone with real knowledge who is prepared to speak out. And anyone who is serious about saving their high street should rush to... er... Amazon (where it is a best seller) and order their copy immediately.

The news of the final demise of HMV this morning is very sad. And very salutary. The big lesson is that corporations do not hold the power (a brilliant editorial today by Allister Heath in City AM), it is consumers that hold the power. 

I nearly missed a charming and rather inspirational piece in the Sunday Times Business Section on the penultimate day of 2012. I only just caught it as I was putting out the recycling (what a caricature I am!). It concerned one Anthony Blackburn, a retail entrepreneur, who had since 2005 owned "Phillip Hall", a small two-storey department store in Ripon, North Yorkshire.
 
Usual story in retail: five months ago the banks decided they could no longer help the struggling shop. The store was 62 years old, so presumably was an established part of the history and culture of Ripon. It was Armageddon. And Mr Blackburn had to decide what to do.

Sandra Jones of Ramidus sent me the recently completed London Office Policy Review (LOPR 2012) the other day.  As she always does, every year.  Being interested in "all things London" I dutifully printed it off.  As I always do, every year.  And then I've spent the past few days wrestling with the aforementioned review.  As I do, every year.  There are reams of it.  And it's...er...technical.  But I needed to get to grips with it, the LOPR is a venerable institution; it's been going for yonks and yonks and is the best indicator going on trends in the London office market (and shhhhh! potential economic growth).   

The wider context for this report this year is interesting.  We live in interesting times.  For some time now I have maintained that the London Plan safeguards (or denies, whichever way you look at it) London from the policy of localism, being essentially a centrist document.  This meant that it could provide an interesting contrast to the rest of the country.  But clever planning types are now saying that the last UK wide planning reforms also fundamentally challenge the localism agenda.  It is now nearly a year since the act received Royal Assent and became law, enabling local neighbourhood forums to be established that can make neighbourhood plans.  There are a few, very few, groups in London who have seized the opportunity to make plans but, for the majority, there are signs that the complexity and cost of the process puts it firmly in the "too difficult box". Does this lack of progress on neighbourhood plans delay development?  Or does it mean an easier ride for developers? Does it matter?  Does the government's increasing efforts to stimulate growth bode well for localism?  Or what?

I was invited to speak at the National Planning Forum at the Local Government Association yesterday on the theme "What next for planning?".  Honestly! It was another of those "What would I know?" moments.  I shouldn't really have accepted the invitation, but I do like the cerebral planning mob, and my ego got the better of me (flattery will get you anywhere, as you well know, Mike Hayes). 

I've been hankering after being at the BCSC Conference all this week. Comes of being a recidivist. I am a serial conference-goer (uber gregarious you see, like a gossip, like to get stuck into debate, like a barney, and do like a glass of white wine), but the BCSC Conference was never really on my radar before. BPF and BCO conferences: yes. RESI: yes, usually, although I won't be spotted in Newport today. Anything with the word "regeneration" in it: yes of course. I have even graced the Sheds Show (ah! the days of "sheds are the new sex") in the wretched Celtic Manor. But I've never been to the BCSC Conference before, even though I worked for yonks on White City (pre-Westfield) and even longer on Merry Hill. 

But I understand that the BCSC put on an important conference this year. And a strong one.  And I'm sorry I missed it. From the Twitter stream (such a bloody distraction, Twitter) there seemed to be so much going on, what with Portas and so on. All my friends were there. And one of the great things coming out of it all was the beginnings of a rather staunch defence of traditional town centres. Hurrah for that. All the more potent coming from a conference mainly given over to discussing built shopping centres and malls in single ownership. Perhaps there is a new understanding of how inter-connected all these things are.

I was pleased to hear our own EG regeneration commissioner Graham Chapman, Nottingham city council deputy leader (and cabinet member for regeneration) on the Radio 4 Today programme yesterday giving a spirited defence of the city centre, as the sixth most popular out-of-London shopping destination in the UK (CACI data). A furore has been started by the Local Data Company which published a report yesterday saying Nottingham city centre has a vacancy rate of more than 30%, which would give it the highest void rate in the country!  

I learn that Mr Shapps is to announce another round of Portas Pilots tomorrow. I have to say, looking again at the CLG Guide Re-imagining urban spaces to help revitalise our high streets, I do think the debate has taken a very healthy turn.
 
Incidentally I got a great response to my Tweet about all this when I fingered "Messrs Pickles and Shapps" from Rob Wright who says "that's a great Dickensian name for something... not quite sure what tho. Suggestions welcome. The ruder the better".

Also my mate, the lovely Stefan Webb followed up, making the helpful suggestion that councils should move their town halls back into town centres. 

I spent a few days in Devon last week, braving the weather. 

The kidult was graduating from Exeter University and the clan all duly traipsed down, taking a holiday let in Dawlish, and making a wee  break of it all. 

It was all rather charming really, both the graduation (she did very well and we're very proud), and the stay in Devon. 

But  being nothing if not a saddo, I spent much of my time in Dawlish working out how to reconfigure the road layout.  It could be such a magnificent  little gem, Dawlish, the ultimate railway town by the seaside, with top-quality public realm, featuring a wide variety of exotic ducks and black swans, were it not for the fact that some transport engineer (who should be  summarily shot) has had a bit of a hissy fit with the junctions in the centre. 

The place is littered with a rash of needless Pelican Crossings (actually I  think they technically might have been Toucan Crossings, but I am not going to  dignify any of this by confessing that I might know the difference) at least half a dozen of the blighters in close proximity, so that the crucial area  immediately adjacent to the heritage feature of the Brunel railway doesn't  work at all for people. 

Nor does it work for cars, actually. In  fact, it only really works for... er... Pelican Crossings (and even those  seemed at odds with each other!) you could have a Pelican Crossing convention  in Dawlish, if such a thing was of interest to anyone who has a life.

So the wondrous Matthew Hopkinson of the Local Data Company has produced figures today revealing that one in seven of our high street shops, nationally, is vacant.  And this figure is "set to rise" in 2012.  Matthew's such a good lad, and he always has his finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist (er...if that's possible?).  And he is to be seriously congratulated on making the dizzy heights of the news bulletin on R4 Today this morning. 

Of course, if goes without saying (for readers of this blog at least) that this blanket figure hides some shockers - it is one in three shops void in Stockport, apparently.  And, of course, other places are faring rather better: it is less than one in ten in St Albans.  And as we all know... under localism these disparities only stand to widen...
 
Is anyone surprised, I wonder?