Illustrations by Dermot Flynn
I want to put the heart back into the centre of our High Streets, re-imagined as destinations for socialising, culture, health, wellbeing, creativity and learning. Places that will develop and sustain new and existing markets and businesses. 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. They should become places where we go to engage with other people in our communities, where shopping is just one small part of a rich mix of activities.
High Streets must be ready to experiment, try new things, take risks and become destinations again. They need to be spaces and places that people want to be in. High Streets of the future must be a hub of the community that local people are proud of and want to protect.
My goal is to breathe economic and community life back into our High Streets and town centres. I want to see all our High Streets bustling with people, services, and jobs. They should be vibrant places that people choose to visit. They should be destinations. Anything less is a wasted opportunity.
Please read through my full report below, or click here for a summary of my 28 recommendations.
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Comments
I’d love to hear your feedback. Please leave a comment below.
It’s good to hear a success story – it makes a refreshing change. This story is about a village in Leicestershire which has seen a shopping revival over the last year. At the end of 2011 Bird’s moved into the village and suddenly queues appeared outside the shop. A Deli and smart cafe opened later in 2012 and people were sitting on the outside tables and queues also appeared inside the shop. A few weeks ago a classy greengrocer opened and hey presto there was a buzz in the village. The butcher has also reported increased business and is expecting to take on additional staff. After the previous greengrocer disappeared a large number of shoppers used shops outside the village. Now these shoppers have returned and have a good choice of shops. It has become a pleasure to shop in the village and the community spirit has returned as people chat over their coffees, iced buns or cauliflowers! It shows it can be done.
[...] long anticipated Portas Review http://www.maryportas.com/news/2011/12/12/the-portas-review/ into their future of high streets seems to be have been largely well received and made for some [...]
[...] her report, ‘The Portas Review: an independent review into the future of our high streets’, Portas identifies the need to lift [...]
Hi
My wife and I own a beauty salon on the main street (Hough Lane) in Leyland, Lancashire. Over the recent years like many other businesses we have seen turnover drop, but with consistant hard work and savings we have managed to stay afloat. The main street in Leyland is typical of any high street whereas the shops are typically those that do not have to compete with the large stores. I have heard some disturbing news that our local Tesco are opening a hair and beauty salon within their store and plan to offer ridiculous offers to entice customers away from the existing businesses which will ultimately lead to their closure and empty shops. I have raised this with my local MP with no response as yet. This is very worrying as hair and beauty salons make up a large percentage of high street shops, generating a large amount of foot fall which all the other businesses benefit from. This will lead to more businesses to go under and ultimately result in empty shops and job losses, this could be the most significant and damaging effect to the high street in many years and put back all the hard work that has been done to save them.
Please help
If you go to any city and visit the downtown area it will provide a reflection of it’s personality. It is the heart of the community. I have lived in Las Vegas for over 20 years and seen its regrowth from being cold, dirty and impersonal to rich art districts, friendly open street cafe’s, unique outlet malls with street musicians and so much more.
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I understand you are looking at revitising London Road. Brighton. I am a 71yr old resident of Brighton, born and bred there. The biggest problem in London Road is the astronomical price of car parking. It is £3.50 FOR ONE HOUR ON A METER and off street parking is £1 first hour crazy £3 for 2 hours and at weekends it is DOUBLE. I myself and many of my friends do not take the car into Brighton we go to Burgess Hill shopping!!! Who will pay £3.50 to go to a run down shopping centre, there is a branch of Aldi there but I go to Aldi at Lewes as I can park for free.
Good tip ……… I’ve wondered about this myself.
Not to hijack this thread, but, I want to track down a financial advisor that was my parents’ retirement consultant. I’m totally stuck here because I want to work with the same agent I’m not seeing them in any of the local directories online. Carlton Financial Group – 106 Mission Ct #701 Franklin, TN 37067 phone (615) 794-2536 Is there an industry association or directory that I can use to find the agent?
Dear Mary
Welcome your report as any move to rejuvenate High streets is welcome.
I am saddened to see the empty shops in what was previously a busy bustling community.
Only charity shops who pay no rates can afford to have shop space, although still charge very high prices (£75 for a coat in CH&S).
Large out of town retailers benefit from low rates pulling more affluent car owners away from town.
A proposal by Scottish Gov was to charge large out of town retail units more and use this funding to subsidise High Street shopkeepers.
Unfortunately this was voted down by the opposition.
Could this proposal be flagged up again?
Could charity shops help by contributing?
Without doubt! That’s an unusually good post. I’m sure I’ll recommend this to successfully my personal co-workers.If you put up supplemental articles make sure you email these everybody.
Dear mary
we are a small interior design shop in a prosperous town in kent. it is clear when i talk to other shop owners ,small buisness’s and self employed people that there is a huge disconect between the beauraucrats in local councils and westminster, as to what it takes to run a small buisnessand earn a living. most people i speak to are at the end of their tether and i think by this time next year you will the high streets haemmoraging shops as people give up, this will have a disastrous effect on local economies and employment levels.
the reason is simple , shops cannot afford the buisness rates, corporation tax , utilities, vat increase and all the other costs and realistically be expected to make a living profit, it is desperate and the beaurocrats are not interested as they do not have the same pressures as the self employed . get ready for a meltdown !
regards ann
AHHHH OH MAN OH MAN OH HOLY SEXY MAN I WANT TO WIN THE REVEAL GIVEAWAY
[...] Interview with Craig Dalgleish, owner of Hairy Canary and Vanessa Burkitt from Catherine Jones Jewelry share their thoughts and feedback on the opportunities and impacts on the recent Mary Portas report [...]
[...] gehele rapport is de moeite van het lezen waard, je kunt het hier inzien. Ik zou zeggen: tijd om aan de slag te gaan! [...]
I’ve just read the report. It’s refreshingly very well written, and recognises the powerful forces acting against the traditional high street – principally the increase in out-of-town retail and leisure, the rise of the Big Four supermarkets, the growth of e-commence and a weak vision for high streets. The recommendations are sensible enough. But even if actioned with vigour they won’t bring back the high street of the 1980s, 1960s or whenever the golden age was.
Mary, I feel you have underestimated the overwhelming power and appeal of the alternatives to the high street. While the conclusions are spot on, the recommendations don’t fully address the gravity of the findings, so ultimately they can only have a marginal impact. For example there is a whole piece of work to start the process to convert some of the high street estate to residential use – above shops and for whole units.
In 2001 I produced a report for a major UK retailer which predicated “in time most transactions that can be conveniently done on the internet will be”. The conclusions were ridiculed then, but look where we are today. Even I didn’t think footwear purchases could be ‘conveniently done’ on the internet! When I recently bought shoes for my teenage daughters I did so online. I got exactly what they wanted (very difficult to do that in a shop when they are so picky). I got the best price. They arrived in a day. I saved hours and hours of struggling around rainy streets, and the cost of travelling into town. No contest.
And, you’ve seen nothing yet. eCommence is still only 12% of all retail. Saturation won’t be achieved until it’s at least 30%, probably much more as eTailers become better, computers faster and mobile powers up. Why? Because it’s great and it suits CUSTOMERS.
So the future of the High Street will largely be non retail. And it could be a vibrant future with a mix of residential (we need far more homes), offices, bars, restaurants and public services, but not many shops, because we no longer want to use as many of them. Some of the shops left might take the form of front-end service centres for retailers – where you can talk to knowledgeable people about your online purchase, find out more about choosing and using, and pick things up a drop them off. (Sorry retailers but that’s all too rare now – time after time I know more than retail staff about the products they sell because I spent half an hour on the net. John Lewis and Jessops are among honourable exceptions). The report acknowledges the future isn’t retail talking of the high street as a re-imagined destination, yet most of the recommendations, worthy as they are, are more about restoring a retail past that isn’t going to happen.
High street shopping will be like real ale, horse riding and steam trains; absolutely wonderful, still enjoyed and treasured, but not the main way most people do things most of the time.
Hi Mary, I have read in the Sunday paper about your fury over the stalled Rescue Plan, I have no idea if that’s true but if it is how about sending David Cameron an extra proposal no 29. ALLOWANCES PAID TO COUNCILLORS SHOULD BE BASED ON PERFORMANCE AND DIRECTLY LINKED TO THE PERFORMANCE OF SHOPS IN EACH TOWN OR CITY. So a town centre with 20% of its shops empty would see a reduction of 20% in their Councillors Allowances. I think that Council’s like mine that stopped all free parking, employed an army of Traffic Wardens to catch any unwary motorist’s, may very quickly reconsider their actions and start doing things that protect their allowances.
Thanks , I have just been searching for information about this topic for a long time and yours is the greatest I’ve came upon so far. But, what in regards to the bottom line? Are you positive in regards to the supply?|What i don’t understood is if truth be told how you are no longer actually a lot more neatly-liked than you may be right now. You are very intelligent.
Planners need to plan – identify potential town centre sites and allocate them for food retail and market forces will do the rest so we are seeing here a failure of ‘planning’.
Planners need to enforce the Use Classes order and if necessary the government must strengthen the definitions and fund this work by enforcement departments of local authorities so that for example we do not have farm shops, plant nurseries and just about any other business you care to name selling and proliferating selling everything and anything.
Planners can restrict A1 retail to exclude anything other than food so if they did this vital town centre shops such as chemsits, clothes stores etc would be protected.
Food stores / large food retailers are now increasingly circumnavigating not just the high street but also the superstores as they ramp up internet delivery direct from cheap to rent giant logistics warehouses. So the High Street has to revert to the centre for comparison goods and those that need to be seen, touched, felt, tried on, tasted.
Banks are a crucial element to the whole equation and can tip a small settlement / town from viable to non-viable when the last bank in town shuts. The planning system must identify the prescence of a banking facility as a must that has to be preserved at all costs and thus encouraged by whatever means can be found.
Until the planning system sorts out this mess it will only be the small towns and other smaller centres that will continue to survive as they simply will not attract the huge stores to make that investment, subject that is to retaining the local bank.
Ultimately it is up to us the public and small businesses to vote with our feet in the meantime and shop and bank local.
My home city of Lincoln is in dire need of urgent help with it’s local food industry, the situation is appalling on it’s high street yet the county produces some of the best food in the country! What can I do to help and support it and can you help?
Hi Mary, I’m sure you are aware of the problems we are having trying to keep our county council (Telford & Wrekin) from putting what even they call a Hypermarket (5200 sq.ft. Sainsbury’s) on a “greenfield site” on the outskirts of what is currently a very pleasant Shropshire Market Town called Newport. They have already passed it through their planning stage, then we had some hope that the planning approval would be turned down as it was called into Eric Pickles department for him to make a decision in respect of it. In the interim an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government carried out a Inquiry in respect of our appeal against the planning approval, in comparison with a smaller supermarket on a “brownfield” site in an easier site for access and closer to the Town Centre. She found in favour of our appeal and stated in favour of the smaller supermarket. The T&W CC is currently appealing against this approval in the Courts (spending even more of the taxpayers money). There is a strong feeling here that the T&W CC, who own this land, can see a great opportunity to make some money (they will be able to sell the site for £24 million) if it goes ahead.
Our Local Council has now received notification from the Department for Communities and Local Government, saying that the Secretary of State will not intervene re T&W CC’s planning as:
“We are satisfied that the issues are not of such significance to suggest the application would be more appropriately decided by the Sec of State rather than the local planning authority. Consequently, it is properly for the council to determine on the merits, in the light of the local development plan and any other material considerations, taking account of all representations”
Unfortunately we already know from bitter experience that the Plans Board will not take any account of “representations” from local people.
Just another sad story from the wilderness.
Sadly Ray & Sue this is another failure of our supposed ‘system’. Councils should either be divested of all land ownership or of planning powers – let them choose. However if it was up to me as a commercial chartered surveyor I would say get them out of the proerty market where all they do is distort the workings of the free market and that would be subject to them actually doing the planning job – by which I mean planning in advance rather than playing catchup with market forces and continual changes to statute.
Hi Mary.
I read your report with interest, and have a particular interest on the role of online in the demise of today’s high street. If one of the main issues is simply fewer people on the high street, reducing footfall, I wonder what impact the rise of homeworking will have on the social side of it?
Apparently homeworkers have increased by 24% in the last 10 years to number 4 million people, or 13% of the workforce. I believe that most of these people, almost by definition, will be online, but during their day they’ll have a need for a coffee and a chat from time to time!
Is the growth of homeworking a trend that could help provide part of the answer to what will happen to our high streets tomorrow?
Mary,
Can the parking problems for town centre visitors be eased by asking the town’s public and private employees to use their town’s park and ride service or less convenient parking?
Often I see the best parking spaces filled by the people who should be serving the visitors.
By focusing on their short walks instead of their customers’ convenience, workers (and owners!) speak volumes about how little they care about their customers.
John
Hi Mary
Not sure if u will remember me! I worked with u in Top Shop oh around early 80s!! My name then was Mcgregor and I was supervisor for Scotland. Always tried to find a way to say hello & tell u how fab I think u are doing . As someone who set up & bought for small retailers I know how hard it is for them to survive in a global market even without the high street disappearing in front of our eyes.
Not working now Mary due to health, miss it incredibly , but enjoy keeping up with all that’s going on in retail!!! Love ur range in Frazers Glasgow where I am a bit of a regular( much to the pain of my poor husband) lol. I have just purchased ur blanket coat ( reversible) blue & grey …. Love it sooo much.
Well Mary if u remember me & r in Glasgow at some point it would be great to have coffee & catch up!
Hope to do that soon
Rgds
Anne ( Mcgregor) Taylor
x
Ps may remember me as wee Scottie , as Lennie always called me
Dear Mary,
Firstly an introduction, I am a 30 yo small business, shop owner trying very hard to continue running my beauty and hairdressing business in the area of COALVILLE, LEICESTERSHIRE. I started my business venture 9 year ago in a rented premises continuing with an established business that I purchased from a friend who was moving to Australia. After 3 years of success the landlord of the property gave me notice as he had sold the property to a housing developer and I was forced to make the decision of ceasing to trade or investing in another business premises. As my parents had just inherited a sum of money from my grandparents estate they offered help me buy a small shop premises in the town.
The initial transition was positive and trade developed in the new premises and during the past 4 years I have tried extremely hard to continue the business, acknowledging generally the shop has developed well and is completely furnished for a hair and beauty centre. However I have had such problems retaining the ‘self-employed’ (rent a chair) services of hair stylists to complement my own skills of a ‘beauty therapist’ and there has now been a succession of 7 hair dressers that have come to work in the shop, established themselves and a client base and then become pregnant and left when they gave birth.
I have tried various methods of advertising for new stylists (shop window, letters to local colleges, newspaper, Gumtree and word of mouth) in the hope that I will encourage a mature, skilled, stylist who wants to establish and develop a business within my premises, however it seems that my attempts have now failed again and I find myself working alone in the upper rooms of a fully equipped shop with the hairdressing area completely empty again.
The base of the hair studio accommodates space for 3 or 4 chairs that could be sub rented by a manager if they wished and there is ample room to develop an area for a manicurist or other complementary treatments.
I really need your help and advice as I now feel financially and emotionally that I can’t manage another low period without a hairdresser that may possibly lead to a small upturn if I get another hairdresser but will inevitably have the same result as all the other hairdressers that have come to the shop until they have ‘conceived’.
I feel there is no alternative but for me to leave the business and sell the premises as I can’t sustain sufficient income to manage the business and running costs of the shop while I am working alone, in addition to the bad impression it gives to my customers when they come to me for treatments and see an empty hairdressing shop on the ground floor.
As I have described this position has continued for the past 4/5 years and my parents have needed to help me on several occasions by supplementing the entire mortgage payments, as I have not been able to sustain my personal living costs to support my two children, from the money I earn from my services as a beautician.
On another note’ I have heard rumours that you have recently considered supporting ‘small businesses’ much like my own in the town of COALVILLE with your expertise and skills, but it is reported that your offer was shunned by members of the local council as they did not attend a meeting that you arranged to discuss the proposals and you opted to offer your support to the thriving university town of Loughborough. If this is true it is yet another example of how Coalville Town council is set on destroying the town of Coalville.
Please come to the town and see what potential it has for development and allow us (small businesses) to rise above the ‘state of suffocation’ that we currently have.
I would be extremely grateful if you call me for further discussions and hopeful that you agree to visit.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, yours in anticipation
IS THE GOVERNMENT’S SUPPORT FOR TOWN CENTRES JUST PR?
Or is the government more concerned about immediate, short term job creation which the construction industry through the development of further out of town retailing can provide. Check out the situation at Taplow where an out of town development, recommended for REFUSAL by the case planning officer was granted consent by councilors and has NOT been called in!!!! The detrimental effect this will have on Slough and Maidenhead town centres, both already greatly in decline, will be considerable.
No brainer crepe dress Product code: D313342 WHY is this only offered up to size 14??????????????
Just MADDENING when it is a flattering shape for a larger person. Hurray I thought seeing it on HOF website…and then saw only available to a size 14…Just too disappointing Mary.
[...] Portas has nailed the key problems under her commission by the Government. I think the Portas Review succinctly identifies the issues and provides 28 recommendations to try and deal with this serious [...]
Hi Mary. Have you ever thought to come and help us out in Sydney Australia? We are a small family run optometry business in a suburb calles Northmead. Since my daughter has become involved we are carrying some upmarket brands like Dior,Gucci,D&G etc and doing ok. We love looking after our customers and making sure they go out the the perfect pair of spectacles that their going to get lots of good comments on. We are really sad thatSpecsavers with their aggressive marketing ads make us feel like robbers for not being as cheap with their 2 for1 offers. They have brainwashed shoppers into thinking they are getting a bad deal for going anywhere else. We need your expertise! Come quickly. Ronda
Recommendation 27 …… there are empty shops on my local highstreet; whilst these properties are awaiting new occupants, they look so sad and unloved and depressing. Several of my friends run our own businesses, and none of us can afford retail premises. We approached a local business that is closing down after many years, about making use of their shop window to advertise our wares – good marketing for us, yes, but also something to brighten up the otherwise empty window, to show how local entrepreneurs and artisans are trying their best in a recession – and though the owner was happy to discuss such an arrangement, it fell apart as that kind of use of the premises would impact on his business rates liability. So, another empty shop …..
I am glad to be a visitor of this utter web blog ! , regards for this rare information! .
Wonderful blog you have here but I was curious about if you knew of any community forums that cover the same topics talked about here? I’d really love to be a part of online community where I can get advice from other knowledgeable people that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Bless you!
Really fantastic information can be found on weblog . “Society produces rogues, and education makes one rogue more clever than another.” by Oscar Fingall O’Flahertie Wills Wilde.
Where does it say the 1970′s?
Mary, I just want to tell you that you are one of my all-time heroes. I think you ought to be president. We’d love to have you on the team in South Africa.
Big Hug
P
the brown indicative signs that lead into towns throughout the UK have icons for hotels – museums – art galleries but not local shops – just a little thing that would help – I have jsut been successful in having a road sign in a prominent position include the words ‘leading to local shops’ but it took ages to have even this small step put into place – better indicative signs would be a great expedient for you to help us with Mary!
I feel that Holland and Barrett are increasing the prices of their products before that do their PENNY SALE or buy one get one half price. Does Mary have any comments on this?
I live in Ulverston; Cumbria a small market & festival town. At the moment we are being bombarded by Sainsburys who want to build a colossal supermarket on the outskirts of the town known locally as the “Beehive” This will be the worst thing that could happen to such a lovely town. We have quaint little ginnels, cobbled streets and a lot of artisans shops, in fact we have everything we need. We have Booths supermarket, Tesco Express already. My main fear is that if this build is to go ahead it will be the death of Ulverston as people will go to sainsburys on the outskirts but won’t bother once they’ve got their shopping to come into town. I was led to believe that the government were trying to stop tjis sort of thing happening. Whats the point in asking Mary Portas to help save Britains high streets if this is allowed to go on in our towns?
I want to thank you for posting this article without the usual bias that is so prevalent in today’s writings. This content is straightforward information.
I am currently shopping in Higuera Street San Luis Opisbo
This is the future of retail ‘here and now’ thes best
Retail experience I have had in years and years. Please go and see
For yourself.
[...] showing rows of boarded up shops. We’ve all heard of the attempts to stop it in the form of the Portas Review and the Portas [...]
Ballycastle Co Antrim is a small seaside town withh 4000 residents approx. THe main shopping street has 40 small businesses. On 4th July 2012 the DRD introduced parking charges in the main car park which has 90 parking spaces. This is the only car park in Ballycastle with parking charges. The footfall in the shops in the street in the past 5 weeks since introducing this charge has dropped by 20% which has affected turnover to this level. Our concern is for the future of our previously thriving high street. Please can you advise us what to do to save our town centre in this already difficult economic time.I look forward to your reply
I’ll immediately grab your rss feed as I can not find your e-mail subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly permit me realize in order that I may just subscribe. Thanks.
How do I go about starting a shop in a small community in Freshwater IOW, there are some shops laid empty and with the correct investment would make nice little earners and benefit the community.
Hi Mary,
I am writing to you regarding the plight of our little community gallery – The Fish Slab Gallery, Whitstable. Whitstable is a thriving little seaside town where we are still lucky to have lots of independent shops – not just gift shops and galleries but real shops – butcher, bakers, greengrocers. Many of the shops are facing huge increases in rents – we really dont want our lovely shops which make our town so unique to be forced out of business to make way for chains. The Fish Slab Gallery is a non for profit making organisation run by volunteers and we hire out the gallery weekly to artists -which means we have a new exhibition each week which keeps our high street vibrant and alive – the council who own premises want to raise the gallery rent by a whopping 25% which would mean we would have to charge our hirers a much higher fee which would make this unaffordable for most and eventually we would be unable to cover our costs resulting in closure. Whitstable has kept busy and prosperous and we want to keep it that way. We would much appreciate your input Mary. Thank you.
The Fishslab Gallery in Whitstable is a non profit making gallery run by artists. It is at the ‘not so popular’ end of Whitstable. Canterbury City Council are trying to increase the rent of the gallery by 25% which will probably mean that the gallery will be out priced and have to close. There are many independent shops in the town suffering the same plight. Whitstable is popular because of its small independent shops and places like the Fishslab Gallery and if the large chain stores are allowed to take over (which is what will happen if these rent increases take place) then it will lose its charm and popularity. Please support us in our fight to negotiate a reasonable rent with Canterbury City council.
KINKY KNICKERS## )Please spare a thought to dealing with QVC who have a fantastic approach to Customer Care. I buy lots of items from them because I trust them completely and have never been let down. I wanted a pair of KK since the TV prog. but failed to find them in M&S. I EVENTUALLY found them on their website and ordered ! pair with a £3.50 postage. Not impressed with M&S. I would order several pairs off QVC and treat my daughters to these fab. items. As I live in the NW other stores are not readily available to me and I have to rely on M&S for KK.Their view was negative on your TV programme and they have old fashioned views and a superor attitude.Hope you read this x