SHOULD WE TRY TO SAVE THE HIGH STREET? - First News Education
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The News Debate
DILEMMA: SHOULD WE TRY TO SAVE THE HIGH STREET? 15 March 2019
SHOULD WE TRY
TO SAVE THE
HIGH STREET?
THE DILEMMA
Will high street shops soon be a thing of the past?
A committee of MPs thinks it’s a real possibility – unless the Government steps in and takes
action. The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, which is made up of MPs
from a number of political parties, recently prepared a report entitled “High Street and Town
Centres in 2030”, which they spent six months researching. In that time, many British stores and
chains went bankrupt and closed their doors.
While the report suggests things are not looking good for physical shops, it isn’t all doom and
gloom. The MPs suggest that, by taking appropriate action, crisis can be avoided. The main two
action points the MPs want to see are:
The Government helping local authorities (councils) to support high street businesses
The Government’s £675 million fund to help “Future High Streets” be increased with money
raised from a new business rates tax for online companies like Amazon
The report calls on the Government to “go further and faster” to help traditional high street
shops. Is it time action was taken to help physical shops survive in an online age? Or is it OK
that the high street begins to change as more and more of us do our shopping online?
High street
Officially it is the main shopping street in a town, which is often
called a high street, but it can also mean any area with a large
number of shops, banks, restaurants etc.
The News Debate
DILEMMA: SHOULD WE TRY TO SAVE THE HIGH STREET? 15 March 2019
FACTS & FIGURES But there was an increase in The number of
some shops: 349 more barber shops, pubs and
shops, 77 more mobile phone restaurants lying
stores, 52 more restaurants empty increased by
and bars and 51 more ice more than 4,400 in
cream parlours opened. the first six months
of 2018.
Many shops closed in the There are
first six months of 2018: currently
160 newsagents, 119 around 50,000
Amazon pays 0.7% of the money it makes charity shops, 223 electrical empty shops in
in business rates (a type of tax). High street goods shops and 151 the UK.
shops pay between 1.5% and 6.5%. convenience stores.
Nearly a quarter of all
fashion spending is now Since 2008, 32 major nationwide retail chains 70,000 jobs were
done online. Over £7 have closed their doors for good, with the lost in retail (shops)
billion of clothing sales loss of 115,000 jobs, according to the Office in the last few
have moved online in for National Statistics (ONS). months of 2018.
the last 5 years.
2,692 chain stores Closures increased by
closed down in the first nearly 17% to 24,205
six months of 2018 – across 3,000 towns,
about 14 a day. But cities, retail parks and
1,569 opened. shopping centres.
The News Debate
DILEMMA: SHOULD WE TRY TO SAVE THE HIGH STREET? 15 March 2019
HISTORY OF THE HIGH STREET THE RISE OF THE INTERNET
According to British historian Juliet Gardiner, the high street we know began
life in the 1860s, as growing numbers of people moved from the country to
cities and towns, and therefore couldn’t grow their own food or keep their own
livestock. As a result, markets turned into permanent stores, such as butchers,
greengrocers and bakeries.
During the Second World War, rationing meant the high street shops played
a huge role in the war effort. As food supplies were limited, and some foods Amazon
couldn’t reach the UK at all, the Government gave every citizen a ration book warehouses, like
that they would take to their local food shops. There, the shopkeeper would this one in the USA,
are usually far from
stamp the book and give the customer the amount of weekly food they were town centres, so
allowed (known as a ration). Meat, sugar and butter were some of the things rents are cheaper
that were rationed.
In the 1960s, shops enjoyed a “golden age”, as mass production took off. This The internet became popular in the mid-1990s, but it wasn’t until broadband
meant lots of goods could be produced at a lower cost, and the rise of fashion in the early noughties that online shopping really took off. Many online stores
trends meant clothes were not built to last as long as they had been. have come and gone, but some have only become bigger and bigger over
time.
Amazon is the internet’s biggest and most successful store. When it launched
in 1994, it only sold books. Within four years it was selling videos and music,
and soon after it added electronics, toys, video games and more to its stock.
Today, it sells pretty much everything, and also has an online streaming service
called Prime Video.
The company is famous for the convenience it offers: customers can have
goods delivered the next day after buying or, in some cases, the same day.
They keep prices low by using out-of-town warehouses that cost a lot less to
run than high street shops.
But Amazon has also come in for a lot of criticism for not paying its fair share of
tax. In the UK, for example, the company has earned £7 billion in 20 years, but
paid just £61.7 million in corporation (business) tax.
Some campaigners think the way to help the high street is to tax the online
A butcher with The 1960s saw
a meat ration
stores more.
a boom on the
book high street
The News Debate
DILEMMA: SHOULD WE TRY TO SAVE THE HIGH STREET? 15 March 2019
ONLINE TAX WHAT THE HIGH STREET “KING” THINKS…
Mike Ashley is a billionaire British businessman who owns
several UK high street chains. He is the founder and boss
of Sports Direct, the largest sports retailer in the country.
He recently bought the department store chain House of
Fraser, and he also owns Evans Cycles, as well as part of
Debenhams and French Connection. Earlier this year, he
tried – and failed – to buy entertainment store chain HMV.
It was bought by a Canadian businessman instead.
Ashley has been strongly criticised for the way some of
his Sports Direct staff have been treated, and fans of
the football club he owns, Newcastle United, have long
campaigned for him to quit. Mike Ashley
The MPs’ report suggests taxing online sales, owns Sports
deliveries or packaging in order to give high Direct
street shops a better chance of success. The
idea is that if shopping on a site like Amazon
But he is an enormously successful businessman,
costs the same or more than shopping on the
and has been called the “king” and “saviour” of
high street, more people will ditch the internet
the high street. He was invited to speak to the
and go back to the physical shops.
committee of MPs investigating the future of the
But not everybody agrees with this. Obviously high street. He told them:
the online shops like Amazon and eBay don’t,
The UK high street won’t exist in 2030 unless
because they want more customers and more
something “radical” is done.
money. But the boss of the British Retail
Consortium, Helen Dickinson, thinks a new The internet has “killed the high street”.
online sales tax would be counter-productive. The “mainstream” UK high street is “already
She said: “With eight of the top 10 internet dead” – and the minority of the high street “needs
retailers also having physical shops, it is clear an electric shock” to revive it.
that an online tax would further damage the
high street.” More free car parking, park and ride schemes,
and ‘click and collect’ systems are needed to get
However, one of the most successful high people back on to the high street. He also called
street shop owners doesn’t agree with Ms for a 20% tax on online sales to give high street and
Dickinson… online retailers a level playing field.
The News Debate DILEMMA: SHOULD WE TRY TO SAVE THE HIGH STREET? 15 March 2019 RETHINKING THE HIGH STREET GOING OFFLINE? Music, film and video game retailer HMV almost went bust this year – but most stores have been saved Perhaps there’s another way of looking at the decline of high street shopping. It isn’t only high street shops that are having a hard time. While Amazon Maybe our town centres are changing for the 21st century, and where shops continues to grow and grow, some major online retailers have struggled were once the focus, new buildings will become the places we gather at in recently, too. Fashion store Asos had a disastrous end to 2018, with falling the future. sales causing a huge loss in the company’s value. There are more cafes than ever before on the UK high street, for example. Ten At the time, George Salmon, a retail expert said: “It looks like consumer years ago there were fewer than 10,000 places to buy coffee in the UK, but confidence has been knocked to the extent people aren’t spending much by 2017 there were more than 22,000 coffee shops. It’s expected there will be anywhere, be it in physical stores or online.” 30,000 coffee shops in Britain by 2025. Community spaces – places where people, young and old, go for exhibitions, concerts, talks, and just to hang out – are one way the high street could go. Instead of going shopping, in the future we might head out to meet local people and take part in cultural activities. Pop-up stores are, well, popping up on high streets around the country inside empty shop sites. These shops are opened on a short-term basis, usually until the owner of the property can find a new shop that wants to move in permanently. Pop-up stores sell all kinds of things, from clothes to art to food.
The News Debate
DILEMMA: SHOULD WE TRY TO SAVE THE HIGH STREET? 15 March 2019
YES, WE SHOULD TRY NO, WE SHOULD NOT
TO SAVE THE HIGH TRY TO SAVE THE HIGH
STREET STREET
1. IT’S THE CENTRE OF THE COMMUNITY – For more than 100 1. THIS IS JUST TECHNOLOGY ADVANCING – The internet is one
years, the high street has been the hub of the local community. Shops, of the most important inventions of the 20th century. It has made
cafes, pubs and restaurants have brought local people together. It’s shopping quicker, cheaper and easier. Technology is progress and
essential that more is done to protect this. we cannot stand in its way.
2. INTERNET STORES HAVE AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE – Online 2. ONLINE SHOPPING IS CHEAPER AND MORE CONVENIENT
shops such as Amazon can get away with paying less tax than – 20 years ago it was unthinkable that we would be able to buy
high street stores. They also spend less money on operating costs,
anything from books to perfume to computers and have them
because they don’t have the high rents the high street stores have to delivered to our homes the very next day. The internet has provided
pay. this, and although high streets offer a lot, they cannot possibly keep
the same amount of stock as online giants like Amazon.
3. MILLIONS OF JOBS ARE AT STAKE – It isn’t just that empty
high streets destroy the community, they also cost jobs. If the high 3. THE HIGH STREET WILL EVOLVE – Shops may come and go,
street does collapse by 2030, millions of jobs around the country will
but there will always be town centres and they will change and
be lost. develop as time moves on. Instead of permanent shops, community
centres, pop-up shops and cultural venues may open and take their
place.
The News Debate
DILEMMA: SHOULD WE TRY TO SAVE THE HIGH STREET? 15 March 2019
Which would you say you/
Do you/your family go your family do more of:
Do you/your family shop
DISCUSS
DISCUSS
DISCUSS
shopping on the high street? shopping in physical stores,
online?
or on the internet?
What matters more
to you: having a
DISCUSS
Do you think internet
DISCUSS
Why is a high street buzzing high street, What sorts of things
important? or the convenience would be on your stores should pay an
DISCUSS
DISCUSS
DISCUSS
DISCUSS
and low cost of ideal high street? online tax?
online shopping?
What more could be What will the average
high street look like in 30 Should the
done to help high Government do more
DISCUSS
DISCUSS
DISCUSS
street shops, cafes years’ time?
to save the high
and restaurants? street?
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