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Comment: Help small shops
Evening Standard31 Jul 2008
When town centres are given new shopping malls, the inexorable result of the face-lift is that the price of renting shop space goes up. And, according to the Federation of Small Businesses, the victims are small independent shops, who, unlike the big chains cannot afford those rates. The Mayor has now introduced a revised version of the London Plan and one proposal is that developers of major new retail schemes will be obliged to provide a proportion of space at cut-price rents for independent retailers. It follows this paper's long-running campaign to save our small shops.
The proposal would be a useful step towards righting the balance of power away from the huge chain stores. One of the biggest problems for independent shopkeepers is that commercial rents are so enormous, especially in the busiest high streets and shopping centres. But, looking at the number of small shop premises standing vacant throughout London, measures like these cannot be implemented too soon.
Reader views (1)
"Affordable shop rents" miss the picture. It is so much simpler than that.
It is not in town centres, but in inner city areas away from transport hubs, where small shops are the life blood of local communities.
In these areas the damage is done by landlords successfully arguing to planners that commercial rents should be at least on a par with residential ones.
On the contrary. The commercial market is SEPARATE and DISTINCT from the residential one, and it has no lower limit. If there is demand for local goods, the market rate is simply the highest price a trader can pay, be that £5 per month or £5,000. Force landlords to advertise their commercial space on the Council website on a "highest offer accepted" basis, and you will see plentiful small shops and a flourishing local free market economy.
Part of the existing market distortion comes from central government pressure to build build build more residential with each year and convert existing shops. But local planners do have some powers to resist which they do not avail themselves of. They can also make business rates more expensive for landlords sitting on empty space, and compulsorily purchase from the most intransigent land bankers.
- Reg, London, 06/08/2008 11:47
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