It’s a familiar story repeated across the country as many high street shops lie vacant and looking run down as the double whammy of the post-Brexit and pandemic economy combined with spiralling operating costs has seen many familiar names disappear.
St Austell’s Fore Street is no exception with a complete row of empty shops looking shabby and forlorn.
Some, like the former rag trade giants Dorothy Perkins and Burtons and the former Shoezone, which previously traded as Olivers for decades, stand little chance of being let as consumers increasingly do their shopping online.
Many fear these empty units will be ultimately repurposed for private sector sheltered housing and HMOs (houses of multiple occupancy), pouring fuel on fears that these areas will see a significant increase in anti-social behaviour.
Property expert Cathy Parker from Manchester Metropolitan University explained: “Chain stores are moving out of the high street. Recent high-profile deals, such as online fashion retailer Asos’s purchase of high street brands including Topshop and Miss Selfridge from the Arcadia group, and the acquisition of Debenhams by another online business, Boohoo, have cemented the trend.
“Neither deal includes any physical shops, meaning that 118 Debenhams stores and a further 70 Arcadia shops are closing.
“As shopping increasingly moves online, a trend accelerated by lockdown, the question remains of what to do with all the empty space on the high street. Research by estate agent Savills suggests the UK may already have 40% excess retail space.
“Before the pandemic, chain store closures and a declining demand for retail space caused rents to fall and resulted in shorter lease lengths over the past few years. These trends led to an influx of independent businesses on our high streets including bars, restaurants, small shops, music and cultural venues as well as community businesses.
“Covid has had a catastrophic impact on these businesses, in particular those in the arts, hospitality, entertainment and recreation sectors. The failure of these businesses will not only lead to more redundant retail space – it will also effectively kill off many green shoots of town centre transformation.
“As well as redundant department stores, many towns also face the challenge of what to do with high street shopping centres, which are becoming increasingly deserted.
“However, there is scope for temporary change. Longer term, such centres will need to find more permanent non-retail uses, such as leisure or health and fitness centres.
“In some locations, demolition may be the way forward, to make space for other buildings or to create new and attractive spaces.
“This is happening in Stockton-on-Tees, where there are plans to replace a 1970s shopping centre with a riverside park.
“However, this requires bold vision and leadership from the council, community, landlords and businesses. It also requires financing: in order to demolish the shopping centre, the council first had to buy it.
“In recent decades, the decisions affecting the high street have often been out of local control. Absent landlords and multiple retailers ruled from a distant head office have led to management and investment decisions being made far away from the towns and city centres that live with the consequences.
“This has resulted in a lack of coherent management and development on high streets. Everything is piecemeal. While the collapse and restructuring of the retail sector is clearly damaging for many communities, there is a long-term opportunity here to reclaim local control and repurpose the high street as an engaging place for multiple local communities, not just shoppers.
“This opportunity for joined-up planning is threatened by a recent change to regulations, which allows developers and property owners to convert former retail space into housing without local planning permission.
“There is a place for residential development in town centres, but the potential loss of control over development undermines local leadership. For centres to thrive, they need carefully planned development which incorporates a wide range of uses into one space. This can include housing, but should also have a mix of cultural, retail, and leisure and entertainment facilities.
“High streets also need reliable, long-term funding. Historically, much of this revenue has come from business rates. More recently, additional funding has been raised in many towns and cities through Business Improvement Districts, where businesses pay a levy – a form of additional tax – that funds projects within the boundaries of the defined district.
“If retail and commercial spaces on the high street are replaced by housing, then this will seriously reduce the amount of money available to regenerate high streets.”