Reports of the High Street’s Death are Greatly Exaggerated

In 1897, the author Mark Twain had the unusual experience of reading his own obituary in the newspaper. Living in London at the time, he wrote back to an English journalist working for the New York Journal to say that the reports of his death were an exaggeration. His cousin, it appears, was suffering from illness and some reporters back in the United States had apparently mistaken the two in their haste for a headline.

A lot of High Street retailers might feel something similar right now. Even for those who are running thriving businesses, almost every week comes another headline about the death of the High Street.

You can probably forgive reporters for getting caught up in that narrative. Around 15% of retail units are vacant and online sales have shot up from less than 5% two decades ago to almost a third today. The online retailers, for their part, like to make it look like they have an unmatched capacity for permanent improvement. In the last decade, they’ve announced everything from automated delivery by drones to flying warehouses suspended above major cities.

Nevertheless, the High Street remains. In this blog, I want to explore why that is and how the High Street (with a bit of help) can thrive and survive long into the future.

What is and isn’t Killing the High Street

The stats I shared about vacancy rates don’t come from nowhere. The rental value of shops has fallen 25-30% since 2017 and more than 1,200 SMEs have been going out of business every week in the UK. In towns like Wigan, up to 20% of stores are empty. More and more sales have been creeping online, accelerated by Covid, and now businesses have to deal with higher energy prices as well. Even some big names, like Debenhams, have fallen to the wayside.

Alongside those short-term shocks, you have to consider long-term disadvantages like business rates as well. Business rates are taxes based on the value of the property that a given business occupies. The rates represent 42% of all the tax paid by retailers, yet ecommerce businesses often don’t have to pay them at all.

Then, there are questions of access and understanding. While online retailers have their warehouses and the infrastructure surrounding them subsidised with government grants, support for High Streets is often non-existent. Parking is difficult, almost half of local bus routes have been cut, and a lack of good-quality housing in and around town centres means that residents are increasingly moving to the outskirts. Those factors combined mean that, for big retailers like M&S, it’s often more attractive to set up in out-of-town retail parks, where the spaces are cheaper and more accessible by car.

I’m going to come back to what I think can be done from a policy perspective, but one of the most important points here is that none of this has anything to do with online shopping being easier. Indeed, we know that in many cases it isn’t. The challenge and cost of final mile delivery is enormous. Without these quirks of the tax system or the obstacles to town centre access that our system has created, it’s entirely possible that buying in-store would be considered the cheaper, easier option.

How SMEs are Making the Best of Bricks and Clicks

Another good reason to think that the death of the High Street has been declared too soon is that bricks and mortar businesses are continuing to innovate and thrive despite the inequalities in the system. Click-and-collect is now worth 8% of all retail income; small and large retailers alike have ways for customers to order online, and marketplaces like Ebay, Etsy, and Amazon give small businesses access to a much wider audience. SMEs that have been selling on the High Street for decades can build on their knowledge of their industry and suppliers to conquer footfall and web traffic alike.

Digital marketing also has a big role to play. Small businesses that previously had dozens of customers per day are finding thousands of followers on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Rhodes Wood, a traditional tailor in Harrogate, has more than 400,000 TikTok followers, with content covering new shoe styles and ways to make a clip-on bow tie look like a real one.

What Does the Successful High Street of the Future Look Like?

There are a lot more successes just like Rhodes Wood waiting out there, they just need the right environment and the right support. The High Street of the future needs to turn empty retail spaces into diverse, thriving centres that deliver on the real needs of their communities.

A mixed-use approach is key. Empty shops could be converted for medical provision, bringing more footfall to the High Street while also addressing the desperate lack of NHS facilities. As workforces become more dispersed, businesses may find that a network of smaller, more local offices is preferable to having thousands of employees in one, central headquarters. Schools, colleges, and higher-quality, town centre housing could all form part of the future High Street. The result would be that more people can solve more of their problems in one place, picking up their shopping on the way back from the doctor or on their lunchbreak from work.

As I’ve hinted at already, addressing the chronic low quality of public transport could make a big difference here as well. The High Street of the future has to be accessible. It’s no coincidence that wealthier areas like London, where public transport provision is much better, have seen less of a decline in their High Streets.

This all plays into the concept of a 15-minute city, where every essential service is a 15-minute walk or bike ride away. By bringing shops, parks, schools, and healthcare services together in the centre, with better infrastructure and mixed-use developments, it should be possible to reinvigorate local economies and local communities.

What Should Governments and Local Councils be Doing?

As well as investing in housing and public transport, not to mention reforming business rates, there is a lot that national and local governments in the UK can do, but it all requires deliberate action.

The good news is that we’re starting to see the kind of action that’s needed in a few areas. In Wrexham, the local council is taking advantage of a Welsh government-funded scheme to install new technology and new monitoring devices so that it can target improvements to the town centre. Sound sensors will help to tackle anti-social behaviour, while footfall monitoring will help to target car park and transport improvements. At a UK level, meanwhile, the government has just announced a new scheme to help small businesses develop and use artificial intelligence. These are the first drops that could form an ocean if we see the kind of decisive action we need.

Learning opportunities for small businesses are going to be vital as well. Those of us who have been employed by a large organisation know that we have access to a whole library of e-learning courses and regular opportunities to upskill. Small businesses need those opportunities as well. Helping businesses learn how to manage and refine their digital presence would be a great start, helping customers see where and how their local community can provide them with the high-quality services that they need.

What Do SMEs Need to Do?

All that is not to say that there’s nothing for SMEs to do themselves. Even if the infrastructure and the learning opportunities are all there, it still means that small business owners and their employees have to show the willingness to get stuck in and learn new things. If you started a small business, you already have that entrepreneurial flair, so I have absolute faith in your ability to do so, but here are some quick tips to get started:

• Make sure you and your business are online, using the right platforms to reach your audience in the right way.
• Use social media as often as you can and develop websites that work.
• Learn about SEO and the building blocks behind the scenes that help put your business high up on the search rankings.
• Focus on the experience of being in store, in person, not just the product on the shelves. If walking into your shop fills visitors with joy and amazement, they’re much more likely to take pictures, show their friends, and come back.

All told, it takes all of us to come together. Governments have to be proactive. Local Councils have to nurture the High Street. As communities, we have to care about what happens to our town and city centres. As business owners, we have to recognise the opportunities that are in front of us and make the most of them.

If we can do that, the results will benefit everyone, not just economically but culturally as well.