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Portas report welcomed by Daunt
13.12.11 | Lisa Campbell
Free local parking, better support from the government on business rates, and mentoring for smaller shops from the larger retailers are among the recommendations from Mary Portas in her report on the future of the high street, published today (13th December).
The government-commissioned report has already garnered support from Waterstone's m.d. James Daunt who said it "holds much sense".
Independent booksellers have complained that high business rent and rates, the rise of online retailing and expensive parking are among the major challenges for bookshops trading on the high street.
Today the "Mary Queen of Shops" presenter recommended that local areas should implement free controlled parking schemes, and called for a parking league table to be created to make public which town centres are the most expensive.
The retail "guru" said that "more could be done" to make business rates work for high street businesses, observing: "Quite frankly, the costs of trading in many areas far outweigh the benefits of being in a town." However she stopped short of making a specific suggestion on how the government should move on the issue.
Portas said that landlords should better support their business tenants. "Both landlords and tenants need security and stability and a new contract of care should help to keep landlords’ properties filled and businesses’ profits following. I want to see a new relationship between landlords and business tenants, with landlords feeling like they have a stake in the success of their tenants’ business and a shared aspiration—essentially supporting them to thrive," she said.
She called for the idea of "alternative lease structures" to be investigated, increasing the availability of monthly rather than quarterly in advance payment terms, for business with cash flow problems.
With town centre vacancy rates doubling over the last two years and the total consumer spend away from our high streets over 50%, Portas is championing the idea of making the high street more of an entertainment destination, which is where out-of-town shopping centres such as Westfield has succeeded.
In her "vision" of what a successful town centre will look like, Portas said: "I want to put the heart back into the centre of our high streets, re-imagined as destinations for socialising, culture, health, well-being, creativity and learning . . . The new high streets won’t just be about selling goods. The mix will include shops but could also include housing, offices, sport, schools or other social, commercial and cultural enterprises and meeting places."
Portas suggests establishing a National Market Day to encourage "talented people who have something to sell" and calls on the government to make it easier for people to trade at markets. "Instead of needing to jump through certain hoops of licenses and regulations, why can’t we proceed on the assumption that anyone can trade on the high street, unless there is a valid reason why not?"
Other of her recommendations include putting in place a "Town Team": a visionary, strategic and strong operational management team for high streets, empowering successful Business Improvement Districts to take on more responsibilities and powers and become "Super-BIDs" and running a high profile campaign to get people involved in Neighbourhood Plans.
Waterstone's m.d. James Daunt commented: "I've always believed that booksellers should be at the heart of the communities they serve, and that is exactly what we are doing with Waterstone's. Mary Portas obviously has a similar, strongly held philosophy and her report holds much sense."
The government is expected to respond to the Portas Review in the spring.
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Well, if Daunt welcomes the report it must be OK.
I dislike this woman. She seems to have taken on a role nobody asked her to, and is insisting she knows what will work.
Er, is every town not different?
I think you'll find they are.
Why this deserves a mention on this website is beyond me... further proof as to the adoration of James Daunt?
Actually, the Prime Minister asked her to and one of her suggestions is that each town should have a specialist team dedicated to keeping the high street alive. Her report is being mentioned here because there are still a few booksellers on the high street.
Dauntaholic, Mary Portas was asked to take on this project by the current Government, and she talks a lot of sense.
Eh, if Maggie or whatever her name is, owned property and was leasing it to struggling retailers, what support would she be offering? Anyone looking at commercial property news knows landlords have bills to pay too.
Who is she?
Who IS she?
Who are any of them ?
Who are you?
philosophical questions abound...
I see Westfield gets a positive mention.
What a coincidence.
mais naturellement
I can see her point, but she mentioned on the BBC we should have gyms on the high street - when I've been to the gym I have no desire to pop around the shops or stop for a coffee!
Free parking would be great - but it's one of the few ways local goverment make any money, so it won't happen. I have asked if we could have a validation parking scheme (If they spend money in the shopping centre then they get free parking) I was told they had looked into it but not all the shops in the centre would sign up!
I'm guessing the Bookseller rang Daunt for a quote to give this a reason to put the article on the website...I don't think anything either of them say will make a blind bit of difference, Portas is relying on everyone with the power to make change happen is forward thinking and proactive...she needs to come to my town to witness procrastination in action!
If parking goes free then Councils will have to put up council tax and we still won't be able to afford to shop. Plus people will start complaining that commuters are using the carparks and clogging up spaces. Charges need to come down, but there are reasons why they started charging in the first place.
As to lower business overheads, all well and good but landlords are locked into high repayments with their banks dating back to the boom years and beyond and so I fear they would just pocket the difference and not pass it on to the tenants (in the form of lower rents).
The whole system is broken.
I don't really care for the Conservative's or Cameron, but aleast he asked for his review, no previous government has even thought to look at why the British High Street appears to be doomed.
The negitivity on this website staggers me, life may be hard but aleast people are talking about doing things to help the High Street and especially bookshops. The plight of the bookshop rarely goes a day with being in the press which can hardly be said for other trades, no one bemoaned the disappearance of the Recordshop until it was way to late.
On the parking front, free parking doesn't mean that cummuter's will take over, if you introduce time limited free parking, people can't park there all day.
Mary is also a key figure in retail, she may not own a retail business in the same way a lot of us do, but she is well known to the general public and if we want things to happen the public have to support us, so using her was a great idea, and if you don't know who she is (re earlier comments) you really don't know what your talking about.
May main concern is lets hope that Cameron actually acts on what she says rather than doing it lip service!
No one, no one at all.
Tenents beware at the end of lease terms, some landlords are taking on tenents at very low rents, just to break even over this period..... then WHAM ! you get a very big dilapidations bill at the end of the term which can be their profit on the lease.
if you in your final year of a lease, look up schedule of dilapidations on google, and books !!!
its a freekin scary place to be !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyone interested in this article should read the following:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2013977/Fashion-life-A-trip-...
I like your reference to an '80s band fronted by George Michael, but that's about all I understand of this comment.
ARGH!
I'd wish people would give a warning before linking to the Daily Mail.
The idea of the High Street as some sort of social magnet just no longer stacks up in a fractured, digital age where information moves a little bit faster than the brass band marching round the war memorial. People have deserted the High Street in droves, partly because of the one-size-fits-all composition endlessly repeated up and down the land, and partly because over-inflated rents/business tax/parking charges/etc make it impossible to compete with online retail. I welcome James Daunt's desire to fuzz round the edges Waterstones, but frankly the shops at the moment are dire - smart people only go there to check out the product before buying it online. The idea that customers and staff sit around in the equivalent of some sort of literary salon harks back to the halcyon days of bookshops like Shakespeare and Co and Compendium. Not least because the format of the book itself is under threat, and rightly so.
The high street deteriorated when:
Too difficult/expensive to park
Same old same old chain stores selling the same stock which you can find better ranges in out of town free parking shopping centres and not get wet.
Rise of the supermarkets
Too many £1 shops making it look tat.
Internet trading.
Markets in the freezing cold will not solve these problems!
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