A week rarely passes without more stories of the high street’s struggles. In the past decade several household name retailers have collapsed and many more suffer from poor sales figures.
Commentators usually place the blame for this situation on two things: Online shopping and businesses rates. This misinterprets the challenge facing the high street and ignores the reality that, in many places, the high streets are booming.
In Cambridge, York and London the high street vacancy rate is around 7%. While at the other end of the spectrum Newport, Bradford and Wigan have the most city centre vacancies, with more than one in five commercial units sitting empty. All of these places face competition from online retailers and councils in all of these places charge business rates.
High streets struggle because of the weakness of the broader city centre economy. Concentrating high-skilled exporting businesses within the city centre creates well-paying jobs and people with money to spend on high street amenities. For example, people in Cambridge, York and London have on average £634 more to spend every month than those in Newport, Bradford and Wigan.
The extra income, created by the high-skilled, high-paying companies that locate in the city centres of places such as Cambridge, York and London, generate footfall for high street leisure and other amenities. For example in Manchester, where the number of city centre workers has increased in the past 20 years, the number of high street amenities has also increased.
Many cities struggle to attract business investment and have high vacancy rates on their high streets. How can they improve their attractiveness to business and boost the vibrancy of their city centres?
This report explores the link between city economies and the strength of their high streets.
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The recent focus on struggling high streets ignores the success of well-performing city centres and misdiagnoses the real problem: a lack of high-skill jobs
A strong high street does not necessarily need to have lots of shops. High streets with more empty units actually have higher proportions of shops, while those with fewer empty units have higher shares of food, drink and leisure amenities that do not compete with online retail giants.
Ensuring a supply of good quality office space for high-skilled businesses is also an important component of ensuring the high street’s survival. The proximity of office space to local conveniences, bars, restaurants, gyms and other amenities creates a permanent footfall for the high street.
Policymakers examining the most effective and long-term ways to save the high street should:
What's the right mix of commercial space and residential in the heart of a city? What can places do to attract more business investment and people to city centres?
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Senior Analyst Kathrin Enenkel on why the current web of business rates reliefs should be abolished.
The business rates burden falls disproportionately on Northern England and is a barrier to levelling up. Andrew Carter calls on the Chancellor to reform the system.
Change can be hard. Changing something as complex as the business rates system is no exception to this - but the Dutch experience shows it is not only possible but also well worth it.
Paul Swinney argues that high streets and city centres will adapt, as they always have done, to the challenge of Covid-19.
A look back at the first national lockdown as England begins a second one.
Join us to hear about our proposals in our latest report
A 10-point plan for ensuring that a reformed business rates system puts local economic growth at its heart.
Business rates are one of the most important taxes for local government, yet our current system has come under huge scrutiny in recent years. The tax has been blamed for the struggles of...
