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'Portas Pilot' Entries - A Few Favourites...

By Graham Shone on May 15, 2012 9:15 AM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks
Housing & Local Government Minister Grant Shapps tweeted yesterday that the successful bids for town centre regeneration funds via the 'Portas Pilot' scheme will be announced at the end of the month.

With hundreds of entries reportedly clamouring for the cash, I had a look at a few of the video entries to get an impression of how the town teams were going about pitching to the government.

With an extremely broad creative brief, it is of little surprise that each submission differs from the last - and as such, it's extremely difficult to judge which ones will be successful. There are some which unimaginatively point the camera at vacant stores with the word 'Help' emblazoned across the screen, and others who have clearly tried to stand out by engaging the town in wacky dance routines in various (former) retail hotspots.

The ones which I found most appealing came from towns such as St. Austell, Warwick, Grantham and Aylsham; as they seemed to have more of a focus on what their towns specifically require in order to regain the vitality of ages past - and already appear to have a plan as to how best use the government cash.  

There were also interesting entries from Ripon and St. Ives, who have focused their regeneration plans around unique heritage sites, and embraced the potential of tourism to help boost town centre footfall.

The most bizarre entry comes from Exmouth; wherein a teenage girl is apparently beamed down from space, and then escorted around the town by someone looking suspiciously like her sister, before concluding that the townsfolk are spending entirely too much time larking about by the beach, and not enough on their 'quite nice' high street, before she's whisked back into the orbit. The tagline, 'bring them here, keep them here", is altogether more sinister than was surely intended.

Also, if you'd like to see perhaps the worst impression of Mary Portas ever performed - check out Tamworth's effort. 

Some common themes mentioned in almost every entry are the failure of councils to come up with innovative town-centre-saving solutions over a number of years (or even decades); the cost of town centre parking or the lack thereof; proliferation of supermarkets & out-of-town developments causing town centres to falter, and the impact that on-line shopping has had on the high street. These, of course, are aspects that the government and Ms. Portas are already painfully aware of.

One wonders how the winners will eventually be chosen. Do the video entries carry as much weight as the application form? If so, does 'view count' get factored into the final reckoning? Are CACI ratings consulted in order to determine the most deserving of town centre investment? 

We'll find out in a couple of weeks - but for now, I'll champion Warwick's entry one last time...local bias at it's best!

Cinemas - Cruelly Overlooked as a High Street Remedy?

By Graham Shone on April 24, 2012 12:04 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
The Local Government Association published a survey earlier this month which tackles the issue of high street 'clustering', which I have blogged about before on here, and once again it is of little surprise to see such things heavily lamented by council members. What I find particularly interesting about this survey, however, is the type of premises that councillors feel will help most to regenerate struggling high streets.

The officers rate books and clothes stores, restaurants, and local butchers and bakers highest with over 90% of those surveyed claiming these types of outlets were the most important elements needed to help restore the future vitality of Britain's high streets. Surprisingly, however, only 68% seemed to think that leisure elements such as cinemas and bowling alleys were of importance to ensuring town centre recovery.

The results seem to largely ignore the fact that supermarkets have largely made the traditional high street model redundant via a combination of favourable parking provision and unbeatable prices over a sustained period of time, perhaps pointing to a degree of romanticism. This feeling doesn't appear to be shared by developers and shopping centre owners nationwide.

Legal & General's Castle Place Market in Trowbridge; Harbourside Developments' Telford Shopping Centre; Capital Shopping Centres' Potteries Centre in Stoke and Key Properties' Kingsmead Centre in Farnborough have all received permission since the start of 2012 for either a cinema-led extension, or a reconfiguration of existing space to accommodate a cinema. Not to mention the plans submitted in February by Hammerson to develop almost 90,000 sq ft of leisure and restaurant space at Centrale, in Croydon.

Whilst these are only a handful of examples, they represent the major retail developers' recognition of how beneficial leisure space can be in a town centre scheme. On the surface, cinemas and bowling alleys, to use the survey's examples, are footfall-drivers and dwell-time boosters; but, crucially, they also offer at least an imitation of the social aspect of town centre shopping that has perhaps been lost through the proliferation of supermarkets.

If town centres are indeed to recover to the level we want them to, they have to provide something that is unattainable in out-of-town schemes or even on-line. This, regrettably, puts an arrow in the idea that the traditional high-street model can be revived, but it gives license to look towards a model that can ensure future success by driving shoppers into the centre of towns to engage in activities besides shopping.

Developers seem to have cottoned on to this notion - and perhaps it's time councils did too.

NPPF: Victory for town centres, or staving off the inevitable?

By Graham Shone on March 28, 2012 9:13 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
It's telling that the responses from the British Retail Consortium and BCSC to yesterday's new planning guidelines were altogether more positive than those given less than a week ago following the budget. 

The main section of the significantly-condensed planning document which would concern retailers and developers is that which deals with the future vitality of town centres, and how planning guidelines can assist the market in making vibrant, competitive, successful centres a reality; and not just a celebrity's dream.

It was pleasing to see the document make reference to the individuality of town centres, and recognise that local authorities need to govern what constitutes sustainable development in their area. The authorities can define the extent of their town centres, and develop their area plans around these parameters. This in turn will mean a greater power to refuse permission to schemes which are seen as being detrimental to the progress of urban recovery, and thereafter, development.

In strengthening the Town Centre First mechanism, the framework has certainly put faith in the long-term ability of struggling town centres to recover - but in terms of shopping and retail, the question remains whether the problems are too endemic for a planning reform to fix. Several planning hurdles may have been removed for town centre retail schemes from a development point of view - but can consumer behaviour change enough to make them 'viable' and 'sustainable'? And how many retailers will survive until the benefits of the guidelines are felt?

The public often give their backing to retail-led regeneration schemes in town centres, only to then either vote with their wallet and shop on-line, or to drive to the out-of-town retail park, where the stores are larger and the parking free. There also needs to be a little more help given to retailers in the battle to pay rent (an opportunity missed in the budget); as there is little point in making the delivery of a gleaming new project easier if there is nobody there to fill it.

The next couple of years will be of interest - as we observe just how quickly the reforms catch on, and how many schemes are turned down due to failing the requisite impact assessments. Only then might we see retailers, developers and, crucially, shoppers turn their eye towards the town centre rather than away from it. The NPPF may be seen as the first step towards town centre recovery - but make no mistake - there's a marathon still to run.

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Budget 2012: The Impact on Retail

By Graham Shone on March 22, 2012 9:49 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The national headlines belonged to the scrapping of the 50p tax rate, and the government's curious decision to alienate everyone over 65 - but there were some elements of yesterday's budget which will have some interesting implications for the retail market over the next couple of years.

Perhaps the aspect mentioned most often by retail experts is over something that the budget didn't do, rather than that which it did. With no respite coming from the Chancellor over the impending 5.6% increase in business rates next month, the cost base for retailers will increase over the next year - and will be in no way offset by inflation, or the cut in corporation tax.

Documents released yesterday indicate that government revenue will be around £592 billion will be raised in the 2012/13 financial year - up £3 billion on 2011/12; and the increase in business rates accounts for a third of this figure.

The decision to relax Sunday trading laws for eight weeks over the summer seems almost like a piece of opportunism, rather than a carefully thought-out piece of legislation, and has gained mixed reviews since its announcement. CBRE's Jonathan de Mello called it a 'timely boost', and that any other decision would represent a 'missed opportunity'; whilst the Association of Convenience Stores have labelled it 'devastating', as it will cost local shops around £480 million in lost trade.

Below-inflation minimum wage increases for adults and freezing the youth rates will certainly be music to the ears of under-pressure retailers; and the increase in personal tax allowances should eventually help consumer spend. The question is whether this increase is coming soon enough - as by April 2013, consumers will have had another year of purse-string-tightening, and the requisite shift in consumer behaviour will be a lot more difficult to engender.

This budget rather gives an impression of the government leaving the retail market in the doldrums for the time being, and rather hoping that the one-time cash injection provided by the Olympic summer can stave off total catastrophe until the population in general has more disposable income in 2013 and 2014. There are, of course, longer term issues over the market which need to be addressed - but the chance for a shot in the arm has gone, and retailers are now left to make the best of what they can out of 2012.


For more from EGi on the Budget - see the Focus Blog for a summary on the impact on regions & click here for a summary of all the major budget stories.

Supermarkets: Good, Bad, Or just too convenient?

By Graham Shone on February 29, 2012 2:33 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
EGi this week reported some good news for the supermarket investment market via a report from IPD; which indicated that it was one of the fastest-growing commercial property sectors. This is the first time that IPD has grouped supermarkets in an investment category of their own when conducting its retail investment research - and much can be read into the fact that supermarkets appear to represent a much less risky prospect for investors than other retail assets, as well as offering a higher return than other prospective investments.

Good news, then, for anyone looking to dive into supermarket ownership - and also for any of the big four seeking to boost their expansion trail by divesting themselves of any owner-occupied premises - but what might this mean for the wider retail market?

Henry Porter launched a scathing attack on supermarkets on Sunday - calling for a 'Leveson enquiry for supermarkets' to attempt to prevent these retail behemoths from, as he sees it, fattening our children, ruining town centres, causing illiteracy, encouraging alcoholism and re-introducing a form of slave labour in order to boost profits.

So, to anyone of a similar persuasion to Porter, the IPD report should make for worrying reading; as with a dearth of truly healthy investment options currently available - it could foreshadow another unstoppable extension of the power wielded by superstores.

A common argument in defence of supermarket proliferation is that we, the consumers, are complicit in their expansion by opting to give in to their lower prices and higher levels of convenience - but what happens when those factors have such force that they destroy all existing competition, removing the element of choice entirely?

Testimony from Barnstaple last year tells a typical and all-too-often heard story of how the fanfares that greeted the arrival of a new Tesco Extra were soon drowned out by the 'high street closures' klaxon just months down the line; and residents have now taken matters into their own hands - petitioning North Devon Council to stop any further supermarkets coming to the town. They are not alone, with dozens of campaigns nationwide now actively seeking to discourage supermarkets from operating in their area.

Whilst I wouldn't go as far as Porter has, and lay the blame a disproportionate amount of the world's ills squarely at the door of Tesco-et-al; the Government may well want to look a little more closely at this issue, and possibly stymie the growth of supermarkets in certain areas in order to give town centres a better chance of recovery. 

Bookies vs Portas - who's your money on?

By Graham Shone on February 27, 2012 11:22 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
This month has seen a response from the betting industry to the assertion made by Mary Portas that gaming outlets were a 'blight on the high street', and that their proliferation is creating unsightly gambling 'clusters' on struggling retail hotspots.

The perception that December's High Street Review gave was that betting shops are wandering unbidden into troubled towns, sneaking into premises once occupied by banks, building societies and estate agents in order to fleece the community of its cash. Senior industry figures have now hit back, claiming that betting shops are taking space that would otherwise have been vacant, and that their contribution to both local and nationwide economies should dissipate any anti-gambling rancour.

The figures stack up for the gambling industry - employing an average of five workers per store, and paying an average of £10,000 annually in business rates as they contribute around £3 billion to the UK economy every year. With this in mind, it's surely no bad thing to put them in a separate use class, creating a level of authority at council level to decide whether or not there are valid enough economic factors to give approval to a gambling venue in their community.

Research from the Local Government Association suggests that the issue is not one of isolated resentment of betting shops, or indeed the idea of gambling, but rather an uneasiness within communities about how simple it appears to be for a new bookmaker to appear in their town centre. The survey also implies that the public perceive betting shops as being similar to sex stores, fast-food takeaways and tanning salons in that they are all 'blights' on the high street.

In my view, creating a new use class for gambling outlets could help to de-construct this negative perception, and shift public focus towards the economic benefits that a bookmakers can have on a local economy, outlined as they would be in any 'change of use' application. This may then result in more demand-led outlets nationwide, as communities look to the gambling industry to provide their high streets with a shot in the arm - when necessary.

I can understand why the Association for British Bookmakers is a little bent out of shape over the possibility of putting their stores in a separate use class; and sees it as a deliberate piece of restrictive policy against them. However, I think in time they might well find there is more to be gained from contributing to communities with the blessing of councils and the public than forcing an unwanted presence into retail centres through scattergun, unrestrained expansion. 

Portas: 'Right Diagnosis; Wrong Prescription'.

By Graham Shone on February 2, 2012 1:19 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
....At least that's the view that has been offered today by Phil Wrigley of LXB Retail and Majestic Wines, who has insisted that if the government were to adhere to the recommendations of Mary Portas' review, the High Street would be condemned to continue to plunge further into a 'Death Spiral', taking already ailing town centres with it.

Wrigley's own recommendation for our beloved urban centres to avoid this grim fate is to encourage increased conversion of high street premises to housing, which echoes some in-depth research conducted by think tank 'The Policy Exchange' in March last year. 

Both Wrigley and the Policy Exchange have championed the idea of increasing flexibility within the current planning structure to allow properties to under go a quicker and easier transition, if required, from Class A to Class C. The common criticism of the current planning system is that councils' obsession with 'maintaining the town centre', or 'supporting economic regeneration', means that they occasionally force buildings to stay within a certain use class, often refusing a change of use until the premises have been vacant for a number of years.

The reason for this is that councils consider planning applications within the confines of local development frameworks (LDF) set out roughly every decade to outline how they hope the area to develop. Change-of-use applications which appear out-of-line with the LDF are seldom given approval, no matter what their viability, with councils more inclined to agree to a short term solution which fits in with their development plan.

I don't particularly share Wrigley's overriding negativity about the recommendations Portas outlined in December last year; but his view, substantiated by the think tank, represents almost the exact opposite way that Portas could have gone with her suggestions. It is a view that was perhaps too radical to suggest to the current government, who have already relaxed change-of-use laws pertaining to office buildings, with so far less-than-resounding success.

Is Portas, as Wrigley puts it, "propping up a failing sector", or is she attempting to exacerbate a latent desire within the British public to return to thriving town centres, thereby resisting the temptation to consign traditional high streets to the history books? What is certain is that the government's implementation of any of Portas' recommendations will be put under intense scrutiny, as the queue of people waiting to say 'I told you so' gets longer by the day.
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