Of all the cultural and economic changes taking place across the UK, the slow, painful death of the high street is surely the most conspicuous.
Although exacerbated by the seemingly never-ending economic crisis, in truth, the high street as we know it has been doomed since Douglas Hofstadter’s ‘Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought’ became the first item to be sold by Amazon.com in July 1995.
Accelerating delivery speeds (Amazon offers a same-day service in some areas, and this will surely become the norm in years to come) and, most importantly, lower prices, have sparked an exodus of shoppers from high streets.
Government schemes are in place to help combat this, with perhaps the most high-profile being the ‘Portas Pilot’.
The scheme, designed in the wake of a government-commissioned independent enquiry into the future of the British high street, led by retail expert Mary Portas, aims to ‘breathe new life’ into local shopping centres, creating town teams made up of the key players in their local community. An initial 12 towns were accepted onto the scheme, sharing £1million in a bid to regenerate town centres and high streets. (15 more have since been approved).
The idea is to encourage local partnerships and consortiums to come up with innovative ideas about how to transform their local high street into a social place bustling with people, services and jobs.
A dedicated team and Ms Portas herself will offer support to the 27 towns selected.
However, to many, the idea of the high street as a ‘social hub’ is outmoded, and misses the point. The ‘social’ aspect of the high street, while certainly important, is born from its necessity. A high street – a collection of shops – runs on commerce, on supply and demand.
The internet’s globalisation of the retail sector means consumers can find anything they want, from anywhere in the world by spending 30 seconds on Google, so while it may be impossible to save the high street in its current form, it may be possible to repurpose it. However, with each town only receiving £100,000, it will be interesting to see how this scheme addresses these issues in practical terms.
We will be looking further into the retail sector (and the Portas Pilot) over the next few months, and exploring exactly how the scheme is working for the towns involved.