The Association of Convenience Stores’ (ACS’) Community Barometer has highlighted Scotland as one of the areas worst affected by high street decline in Great Britain, whilst ranking convenience stores as the number one service for supporting local growth.
Greater London emerged as the only UK region where people felt high streets were getting better, with a positive net score of +16, while the East Midlands – despite being the second best-performing region – scored a paltry -7.
At the bottom of the index was the South West with a pitiful -28, followed closely by Scotland and Eastern England both scoring -24.
The barometer painted a sorry picture of the UK’s high streets, with under a quarter (23%) of people feeling their local high street had improved over the last 12 months, while over a third (35%) felt it had gotten worse.
However, the report illuminated the importance of local shops with convenience stores ranked among the top three essential services alongside pharmacies and post offices. Over half (51%) of people agreed that their local shop acts as a community hub and 54% agreed that it helps to reduce loneliness in their community.
The top five reasons why people believe their high street is getting worse are:
- Too many empty shop units
- Poor range of shops and services
- Fewer shoppers due to the cost of living
- Stronger competition from online shopping
- Prevalence of dodgy shops
The report found demand for a diverse range of services like specialist shops, bank branches, pubs, bars, restaurants and sports facilities. However, the businesses that people didn’t like appearing on their local high street were: vape shops, pawnbrokers and barber shops that seem to pop up when a high street is losing its vitality.
The Community Barometer has set out three priority areas for the Government to consider as it forms its new High Streets Strategy. These three priority areas are consistent with the recommendations of 15 reports on high streets delivered over the last decade that successive Westminster governments have failed to implement. They are:
- Making safety on the high street a priority by making better and faster use of closure orders and criminal behaviour orders to address the problems of retail crime and the presence of dodgy shops locally.
- Reducing the cost of operating by leveraging business rate reliefs, making it more appealing to take on empty properties and address the number one reason why people feel their high streets are in decline.
- A town centre first planning system that moves at the pace of the businesses it serves, directing new retail sites onto high streets, concentrating footfall and investment activity where it’s most needed.
ACS has written to Andy Burnham ahead of his appointment as Prime Minister, setting out the change needed on high streets.
ACS chief executive Ed Woodall said: “Access to local services that make people feel good about where they live should not be a nice-to-have. The Community Barometer sets out a blueprint for the changes that are needed to give the whole of the UK reason to be proud of their high streets.
“Thriving local shops, diverse places to eat and drink, and core services like Post Offices and pharmacies are all part of the makeup of a successful high street, but too often these businesses are failed by rising costs, slow planning decisions, and lawlessness that goes unpunished. If the next Prime Minister is serious about effecting change and delivering good growth, high streets need to feel safer, business rates need to be reduced and planning decisions sped up.”
