It might be Black Friday but the high street is dying... use it or lose it

Jonathan Prynn

(Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures Ltd)

On the dot of midnight the great annual Black Friday online spending splurge officially got under way. This year’s keyboard retail frenzy looks set to smash all records with London’s high streets still largely shuttered for the lockdown and savings boosted by the interminable fun famine of the past eight months. One thing is for sure, today at least the nation is in the mood to spend, spend, spend.

None of that is huge consolation for traders, particularly small independents in our town centres who, even before Covid-19 was ever heard of, were facing the most testing combination of threats to their livelihoods. While physical shops toil under the heavy burden of rents, rates and taxes on profits, the internet giants — notably Amazon — make a far smaller contribution to society.

Consumer confidence was already weak— depressed by the endless Brexit saga — and that was before two lockdowns forced all shops apart from supermarkets and food stores to shut completely for a total of 16 weeks.

Footfall on London’s high streets is forecast to be down 70 per cent on last year today while the online retailers fill their boots. At least the end of this lockdown is in sight but Wednesday’s liberation will come too late to save many otherwise viable retailers.

Over the past year vacancy rates on London’s high streets have increased from 8.6 per cent to almost 10 per cent, while internet spending as a proportion of the retail total is up from 19.1 per cent to 28.1 per cent in the 12 months to October. More than a decade after this paper launched the highly successful Save Our Small Shops campaign in response to the threat from “clone town” national chains, it is time once again to rally behind the hard-working traders who give our high streets the character, vitality, diversity and charm that most of us value so much — and would miss dearly. Perhaps now more than ever. If there is one thing this crisis has taught it is the value of local communities and the human interaction that comes with them.

So what needs to happen to help prevent a new “extinction event” among retailers and help them survive and thrive once the pandemic is over? The answer is a combination of actions from Government, town halls, the shops themselves — and us, the customers. The most pressing threat is the next rent quarter day, which falls, with unfortunate Scrooge-like timing, on Christmas Day itself. While some landlords have shown huge forbearance in not collecting rents others have not. Even where rent has been deferred it has rolled up as a huge debt hangover.

A national “rent armistice” with landlords, tenants and the taxpayer all shouldering part of the burden would give businesses a fighting chance to trade through the crisis and beyond. Slightly further down the track the business rates holiday is due to end next April. Many stores, particularly in London, simply will not be able to afford their bills after a year of massively reduced revenues. The British Retail Consortium’s demand for 50 per cent relief seems reasonable.

Thirdly the Government needs to act on its pledge to tax online retailers more heavily if it is serious about saving the high street. An “Amazon tax” could be levied on deliveries, bringing the twin benefits of levelling the fiscal playing field and curbing the number of vans and scooters clogging up roads.

At council level it is time for local authorities to build on the flexibility that some have shown in response to the pandemic. Imaginative initiatives such as Westminster’s al fresco streets in Soho and Covent Garden must become the norm. Shops can help themselves by repeating the mantra “what can I do than Amazon can’t?” and acting on it. The higher the level of personal service, the more likely customers will return.

Finally it is down to all of us. No-one is expecting the internet revolution to end. Amazon will continue to grow, and as a huge investor in London, that should be something we welcome. But it should operate alongside the high street not lay waste to it. David Cameron’s high street tsar, Mary Portas, had a suggestion that would require little effort but could make all the difference. She said all Standard readers should “adopt” a favourite local shop and make a conscious effort to spend money there rather than online at least once before Christmas. When it comes to the high street, the old saying still holds true. Use it or lose it.

Jonathan Prynn is the Standard’s consumer business editor