Saving the High Street across Wales

Now this isn't strictly drinks related but I was involved in a debate yesterday on Radio Wales about the number of Charity Shops on the High Street and it got me to thinking so I thought I'd share these thoughts with you.....

So another poll today tells us that consumer confidence is at rock bottom – the lowest level since 2009, and once again this means that independent traders and family businesses will bear the brunt of this bad news.

Across Wales up and down every High Street the story is the same – people have less to spend and they are worried about their jobs, especially in areas where the public sector is the largest employer as we are still to feel the worst effects of job cuts in that sector.

And as we enter the crucial pre-Christmas period, a time when many small shops and businesses make the majority of their annual profit and one on which they rely to see them through the long Winter months after the New Year, how will the continuing economic woes affect Wales’ High Street ? And what can be done to help our struggling traders to ensure that we continue to have choice and diversity in the High Street in 2012 and beyond ?

The first question perhaps should be is who exactly is helping our independent traders ? What is being done at Government level to ensure that we do not become a clone town nation here in Wales ? Across the Severn Bridge, David Cameron has appointed Mary Portas to ‘save the High Street’ and she is undertaking a review of what can be done to achieve that.

Upon her appointment she said “When David Cameron asked me to do an independent review into the future of the high street, I turned up at a meeting in Whitehall and asked to see the previous research. Twenty or so reports by various industry chiefs and business groups were put in front of me, full of conclusions, recommendations and action points. When I asked about the outcome of these reports, it turned out that they had been filed away, probably gathering dust.”

And further to that “Three years ago six per cent of high street shops were vacant; by the end of last year the figure had grown to 14 per cent. At this rate, in two years’ time, more than a third of city centre shops will be boarded up. But it’s not just the shops that are going from our high streets; banks and post offices are disappearing too. As they go, we lose a feeling of community because the high street is the heart of a town. And, as high streets empty, the crime rate increases.”

She continued “My task is to look both at why this is happening, and what can be done to reverse it. City centres will matter more, not less, in years to come because we live in an ageing society. If the over-70s have no shops and town centres to go to, they will find life very difficult. Watford, where I was brought up, has been hit, but not as badly as many other towns. Margate has the worst problem in the country, with a 37.4 per cent vacancy rate; Runcorn, Morecambe and St Austell are not far behind. This summer, I shall visit not only the sad cases but also the shining examples that buck the trend. Kingston, Marylebone High Street and Reading are all on that list.”

See the problem ? This is an England only review. So who is looking at how to save and re-invigorate the High Street in Wales ? Some may say a more important task given the rurality and public transport scarcity  of large parts of Wales. 

We need a High Street Champion here in Wales, we need someone who understands the challenges and the pressures on the High Street, but someone who will drive any changes through at the highest level, not report and retire. The Welsh Government has made the right noises at times, but as Ministers sit across the Cabinet table they need a cross-portfolio approach to fully help the High Street in Wales. It isn’t just the problem that Edwina Hart needs to sort out, there are many aspects to this problem, some of which extend beyond or own devolved Government, and that is why we are missing a trick here in Wales by not undertaking a similar review with a similarly forthright business expert taking the lead.

We need to look at how transport, planning and parking problems affect the High Street. We need to consider out-of-town developments and the charity shop explosion. We need to examine the rents, rates and energy costs of High Street retailers to see what can be done to help. We need a Government in Wales fighting in Westminster for a VAT cut for hospitality and tourism businesses to 5%. In short we need in Wales what is happening in England. So come on First Minister. Make that commitment to businesses in Wales. Make that announcement. Help the High Street in Wales.

And this needs a balanced approach. It must not be driven by vested interests so it cannot be dominated by small business representatives or large, it must be truly an independent review to achieve the best outcome for the economy of Wales.

As Mary Portas said “Sadly, our town centres are like old friends that we don’t have a lot in common with any more. We used to look forward to seeing them on a Saturday but now we find it a bit of a chore. We try to keep the friendship going for old times’ sake, but at heart we want that friend to be a bit more in tune with who we are today.”

So at the heart of this approach and this review must be the two key players. Retailers and us – consumers. Because unless we re-light the flame of friendship and respond to the challenges and responsibilities that each of us play in this project no amount of experts or reviews or Government action is ever going to help – so I am ready are you ? Come on Carwyn... let’s see what we can do together.

The Ministerial team

So it seems that the new Minister for Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science - Edwina Hart will also have Cabinet level responsibility for agriculture and tourism.

Ms Hart will be an extremely busy lady it seems - these briefs are some of the most important ones in the Cabinet, and whilst Alun Davies AM the Deputy Minister will take day-to-day responsibility for Rural matters it seems as if the seasoned politician Ms Hart has built herself quite a powerful empire.

So who is Ms Hart and who also is Alun Davies - the two people who will have the industry in their in-box over the coming years ?

Edwina Hart AM

Perhaps the article about Ms Hart by Willy Nilly over on Waleshome is a good place to start when he says that "Edwina Hart is a complex and intriguing politician who inspires strong sentiments in others – as strong as the sentiments she feels herself, perhaps. Maybe more than any other Assembly Member she has a public persona which does not leave people neutral and, in tandem, she is not a person given to neutrality either. Hers is a politics of instinct and truths – truths she is prepared to voice, often bluntly, when others prefer to deal in subtler shades of opinion. This creates rather a “marmite” political persona. Those who aren’t warm to her forget though her fundamental decency and personal kindness which she often extends to others in difficult circumstances. For Hart has a big heart, and this has shaped her relations with many of the patient groups she has worked with over the past four years."

Edwina Hart is one of the National Assembly's most assured and competent performers, praised from all sides of the Chamber.  She sought the leadership post in Autumn 2009 and came second to Carwyn Jones in a contest without acrimony. In the appointment of the subsequent Assembly Government she retained the Health and Social Services portfolio, and remains one of the Cabinet's most senior members

Alun Davies AM

So on to Alun Davies - over to Willy Nilly at Waleshome again where he describes Mr Davies thus "Alun Davies is in many ways a model politician. Combative, committed, canny and even sometimes charming, he combines the zest for battle with the asides and anecdotes of a bon viveur. His background in a diverse range of industries and political roles gives him a depth and perspective that contributes to his world view.

One of the Assembly’s most natural orators, he speaks neither in code nor in muted tones. His interventions are often brutal and memorable. When Ieuan Wyn Jones was deemed by Davies to have been “economical with the actualite” around the Heads of the Valleys programme, the many panes of the Assembly building shook at their mutual rage."

Alun Davies entered the Assembly through the Regional List at the 2007 Election.  The "Every Second Counts" campaign, urging Labour voters to use their second vote for the Party, was launched for this purpose - a rare attempt to use an entire political strategy to elect a single Member to a legislature. Perhaps this demonstrated how important the election of Alun Davies was to Welsh Labour. In the end, both Alun Davies and Joyce Watson reached the Assembly through the collapse of Labour in first past the post constituencies in Mid and West Wales.

Prior to his election Alun Davies was Director of his own public affairs company, Bute Communications, and he has a strong appreciation of the business climate in Wales. In the Assembly he has also developed a reputation as a hard defender of his party, never afraid to ask questions of others or take the fight from Labour to other parties. This has resulted in a high media and political profile for a new backbencher. His evident skills have led to extensive Committee responsibility including Chair of the Rural Affairs sub Committee (2007-09) and also, for a time, Chair of the Broadcasting Committee. 

Alun Davies is viewed as one of the rising stars of Welsh Labour - not least because he began his political career in Plaid Cymru. As a student activist and then Communications Director in Plaid Cymru, Alun Davies was one of their most high profile activists from South East Wales, standing for them in Blaenau Gwent, and his defection to Labour in the mid 1990s was viewed as an act of betrayal by the party. Such is the enmity that it is arguable Plaid Cymru spent too long fighting his candidacy in Ceredigion in 2005 and not enough defending themselves from the Liberal Democrats, who took the seat from them.  

His political interests include regeneration, education, public spending and constitutional matters, including the expansion of the legislative powers of the Assembly.

So this is the man to whom a meeting request has already been sent and to whom I shall present the views of the industry as and when I can - luckily - I often share a small quality drink from Wales with Mr Davies so I know he is already on the case - he is a committed member of the Assembly's All Party Group on Beer and the Pub !

Watch this space.....