Retail expert calls for "radical government action" to regenerate town centres

Bill Grimsey, former chief executive of retailers Wickes and Iceland, has called for "a number of radical government actions" to encourage the regeneration of town centres. His 'alternative review' sets out 31 recommendations to create a "fairer, more economically sustainable high street".

In the report, Grimsey's team concludes that there is "already too much retail space in the UK" and that high streets and town centres should instead be "repopulated" as "community hubs" complete with leisure, housing, office space, manufacturing and arts and entertainment uses. This should be backed by a "root and branch review" of the business rates system, complete with annual revaluations in order to "reflect changes in economic conditions as they occur", he said.

"The high street landscape has now irrevocably changed and there is no point clinging on to a sentimental vision of the past," said Grimsey in his foreword to the review. "We have to start planning for a bold new world."

"What is required is a business approach to set out the vision, the objectives and plans to develop each area as a unique vibrant community hub with an economic blueprint," he said.

The report is intended as a response to a Government-commissioned review of the UK's high streets, led by TV retail guru Mary Portas, which was published in December 2011. Grimsey said that this review had "promised the earth but delivered very little", and had "failed to highlight to Government the dramatic structural changes impacting the retail industry" due to changes in consumer behaviour, driven by current market conditions and the increased use of technology.

Grimsey highlighted the fact that "no less than eight major national household retail names have gone into administration since the publication of the review"; a fact that he said was clear to anyone with insight into the retail industry but was not forecast by Portas. The number of empty shops in the UK has remained constant at around 40,000 over the past three years, and over 20,000 businesses remain at risk of failure, he said.

Portas has not yet responded to Grimsey's alternative review. However, at a hearing before MPs on the Communities and Local Government Select Committee yesterday, she said that she had taken a "battering" for her work on high streets, according to the BBC. She added that her report had been a "catalyst for change" that had helped to put the issue on the public agenda.

Among the report's recommendations was requiring landlords of empty shop units to apply for a change of use so that the property could be made "productive in the community" as housing, health, leisure, culture or education facilities in line with a local authority's town plan. Each town should set up a Town Centre Commission to establish a 20-year "vision" for the area, supported by a broad business plan in five-year chunks. Local authorities should update the public on progress annually, both at a public meeting and in an annual progress report.

At a central Government level, the report recommended the appointment of a dedicated 'High Streets Minister' and for cuts to business rates. The next business rates revaluation, which has been postponed until 2017, should be "reintroduced immediately" to realign rates currently based on 2008 property values with current economic conditions. Revaluations should then be conducted annually, with any future increases calculated with reference to an annualised CPI rate rather than one month's RPI, and a new 50% rate relief should be introduced for businesses occupying town centre retail property that has been vacant for one year.

Retail expert Andrea McIlroy-Rose of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the recommendations in the report would "generally be welcomed by retailers" and would correspond with what many in the industry were saying ahead of a leading industry conference held by the British Council of Shopping Centres (BCSC) next week.

"In order to regenerate the UK's high streets, more has to be done by the Government – in conjunction with councils and local authorities – to win over retailers and a sceptical public," she said. "Town centres must become destination areas in order to compete with out-of-town shopping centres; combining leisure and dining facilities with the opportunity for consumers to be able to use technology with the same ease that they do at home."

"For retailers, the main issue remains the high costs of operating their businesses, particularly high taxes such as rates. Business rates that in many cases are higher than annual rents remain at the forefront of their concerns, and this is confirmed by the number of Grimsey's recommendations which refer to a change in the rating system. Other cost savings such as cheaper accessible parking is another necessary initiative if there is to be a serious drive to change the high street and produce a successful model for the future," she said.