The High Street Crisis in Britain

A report this week has revealed that Consumer spending fell for the first time in five years with many citing a perfect storm of slow wage growth, record levels of personal debt and the looming hike in interest rates means we are cutting back and spending less, especially on clothing
A slew of famous names have announced a wave of closures in recent months. New Look announced a slew of store closures and job losses yesterday - while even John Lewis' profits have plunged 77%, it was revealed yesterday. and luxury items.

high street businesses are having to contend with soaring overheads, including steep rent rises and excessive business rates, not to mention issues that put people off venturing to the high street such as rising parking and public transport costs. The number one factor behind this move away from the high street is the internet. An increasing number of people are opting to shop, order food and do their banking online, hitting high street businesses hard and contributing significantly to the downturn in footfall.

Some of the name announcing closes are :
M & S - six stores to close in April & a further eight planned

New Look - 60 stores (after entering CVA)

Nat West Bank = 197 branches

H & M - 170

I know that H & M only opened a two floor store in my local shopping mall about 18 months two years ago, and my my gut instinct tells me that could be one of those stores to close and only recently the local Sainsbury's made redundancies. Their acquirement of Argos sees the branch here closing and moving into the store so that's another empty outlet on the high street and I have no doubt that would be either added to the flat/apartment space that is based next door or taken up by yet another fast food outlet.
But what would really hit my town hard would be the loss of the John Lewis store - they have been one of my town's biggest investors and to me the building they occupy would be the real loss to the town and would prove very difficult to fill.
Having worked in retail for the last 12 - 13 years with WH Smith, since 2005 and have to say the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, the austerity cuts & the rise of online shopping have all left their mark IMHO. The online thing especially has been the highs street's biggest enemy for the last few years.

The last few months I have seen my hours stretch from 1pm to 6pm three days a week & 9am to either 2pm or 3:30 on Wednesdays, plus the odd Monday (which is usually my day off) where it is based most shops are closed at 5:30 I would say that hand on heart, that the crisis in my town is probably felt right across the land and I would say that it all comes down to the local council handling it's budget and the housing crisis is also another possible factor.
My gut instinct that if things continue as they are, my local high street could be totally closed in 3- 5 years and that would be a very depressing sight to see.
And at my age (56) finding another job would be very difficult.

What can be done to save the high street and more importantly what has become of the Portas plan?

im seeing the demise of the retail sector as like the decline in manufacturing in the late 70's and 80's

everyone blames amazon but the fact is that the retail sector has been mismanaged for least 20 years the number of family firms that had a few shops making a lot of profit who then went and over extended themselves with more and more shops paying higher rents that then couldnt survive when was a slight dip.

Every clothes retailer is blaming online but primark doesnt have much of a online presence and they seem to be doing ok

^ A "slight dip"??!!

Add In Toys'r'us...
Mothercare...
and Prezzo...

Just in recent days.

One of the most severe financial crisis in history, but let's put the system back almost identical to what it was before and follow it with 10 years of austerity hitting the poorest in our society hardest (people who spend the highest proportion of their money on the high street btw). Unprecedented wage stagnation (average rises in the 2010s are going to be the worst for over 200 years*), minimum wage still below the curve it was at in 2008 and will be well into the 2020s. Huge personal debt.

But yeah let's blame it all on mismanagement at the firms.

Even elsewhere with Carillion where mismanagement was indeed rife the government continued throwing money at them as if they enjoy the shared delusion.

The chickens are just coming home to roost.

We'll be blaming the EU next.

* http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41388022

Would like to know what the high street is like in other members' home towns too
Here in Welwyn Garden City it is pretty much a high street of cafes, charity shops, betting shops banks and the odd retailer dominated by it's Sainsbury's store, John Lewis and the Howard shopping centre Have to say there are very few boarded up shops or outlets here which is one saving grace but still it is perhaps a sign of how the slowly the high street is changing locally.

If you don't go to a big city centre you seem to be out of luck these days.

My local high streets are full of charity shops, banks, building societies and those modern day pawn brokery things. You know - the sort of thing that should have died out for good with the Victorians.

I agree but I'm sure many will say that in some cities there are changes taking place too

Another catalyst fir the high street would also be the shopping centres themselves as well. I would say that they have had probably in many cases they probably have had the opposite effect of broadening the high street experience.

does any onw what exactly happened to Portas' Plan?

This came the news that Toys R Us will close all 100 stores with the loss of 3,000

another devastation blow to the high street and what will also hit high street just as hard is parking fees rises by most councils next month

The latest on New Looks problems: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43486521

Looks like Next could be... well... next:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43512375

Things don't look too good here either.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/201...mothercare