Time to turn empty High Street shops into housing - minister
Planning minister aims make it simpler to convert redundant shops and farm buildings into homes
INTERNET shopping has killed the British high street and it’s time we accepted it. That’s the view of planning minister Nick Boles who now aims to make it much easier for empty and boarded-up shops to be turned into homes.
Local authorities across England will be urged this week to concentrate their efforts on revitalising shopping to just one or two "prime streets". The rest can be converted into homes or apartments. Meanwhile, farmers will be told they can turn redundant barns and stables into housing.
Boles’s radical proposals, contained in a consultation document due out this week, mark “a dramatic shift in policy” from a coalition government that just two years ago hired 'Queen of Shops' Mary Portas to save the high street, says the Daily Telegraph. Only in June, she attacked the government for continually refusing to commit to the "town centre first" policy she advocates.
The Boles solution has been greeted warmly by those who have been demanding radical solutions to provide new housing stock without building on green belt land.
Campaigner Bill Grimsey told the Telegraph: "At last the message is getting through, that there are high streets out there that do need to be considered in a very different way. It's only going to get worse.
"We have been saying it for some time, high streets cannot continue to serve solely as a retail destination, they have to be seen as a community hub."
An unnamed executive told the paper: "Given the over-expansion into out-of-town shopping, and now the rise of the internet, there is just too much retail space. I think it's a clear and honest statement by the minister."
An estimated 14 per cent of high street shops are empty after the credit crisis knocked out Woolworths and HMV among other well-known retail chains.
Online shopping already accounts for approximately £1 in every £10 spent on retail - and it’s rising.
Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/business/54448/time-turn-empty-high-street-shops-housing-minister#ixzz2b68zJp2e
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The traditional high street is dead, says minister, as he suggests shops could become homes
A Government minister sounded the death knell for traditional high streets today as he said empty or boarded up shops should be turned into housing.
1:26PM BST 04 Aug 2013
904 Comments
Nick Boles, planning minister, will grant local authorities far greater freedom to convert retail premises into private housing as the internet transforms the way Britons shop.
A consultation paper due out this week will suggest councils across England should concentrate their efforts on revitalising shopping to just one or two "prime streets". The rest can be converted.
Insiders said the change would likely see the end of "long straggly shopping streets heading out of town" and shorten existing high streets.
Mr Boles will also allow farmers to convert old agricultural buildings such as cowsheds or stables into housing.
The high street proposals mark a dramatic shift in policy from a Coalition that just two years ago hired 'Queen of Shops' Mary Portas to save high streets up and down the country.
In June, she attacked the Government for continually refusing to commit to the "town centre first" planning policy that was central to her recommendations.
Retail chiefs said Mr Boles' proposals marked the first time a minister had publicly admitted the high street in its traditional sense was beyond saving.
Bill Grimsey, a campaigner who has called on ministers to admit the high street is dying and needs radical reform, said: "As soon as I heard this I tweeted 'Hooray'." He added: "At last the message is getting through, that there are high streets out there that do need to be considered in a very different way. It's only going to get worse.
"We have been saying it for some time, high streets cannot continue to serve solely as a retail destination, they have to be seen as a community hub."
Another executive told The Daily Telegraph: "Given the over expansion into out of town shopping, and now the rise of the internet, there is just too much retail space. I think it's a clear and honest statement by the Minister."
Mr Boles department was unable to provide any more detail behind his plans.
A spokesman said there was no current estimate of how many homes could be created through the relaxed planning rules. He insisted the Minister was not "abandoning" the high street, and that creating housing closer to those shops in prime locations may actually boost business.
But in an interview, Mr Boles said: "People's shopping habits are changing very fast as a result of the rise in internet shopping and changes in lifestyle and working patterns.
"We need to think creatively about how to help town centres thrive in this new era. We want to encourage local councils to concentrate retail activity into the prime shopping streets in the heart of their town centres and adopt a more relaxed approach to underused retail frontages."
An estimated 14 per cent of high street shops are empty or boarded up after the credit crisis ripped through the retail sector. Big names such as Woolworths and HMV collapsed into administration, with some disappearing for good.
Online shopping accounts for roughly £1 in every £10 spent on retail, and internet sales are growing at a phenomenal rate.
But store chiefs have called on the Government to do more to help high street shops by cutting business rates. The Chancellor put the rates up again in the Budget, adding £175 million to retailers' costs during one of the toughest trading periods in recent memory.
B&Q is among those "shrinking" its stores, in part because of the rise of the web but also to trim its huge business rates bill.
Ms Portas warned the new proposals could jeopardise the high street's role as a "community place, a meeting place". She said: "My concern is that the local councils will just go for the easy option of 'let's turn it back to housing' and that mustn't happen."
Helen Dickinson, director general of the British Retail Consortium, said: "We need to see the detail of what is being proposed, but what I would be keen to make sure is that there is a joined up approach to this problem across every Government department, from the Treasury to the Department for Business and the Department for Communities and Local Government."
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