Window of opportunity to save our high streets is narrowing

The impatience of Millennials and Gen Z is hollowing out our high streets, but are they too busy shopping online to realise? Hywel Thomas assesses Wales’ high retail vacancy rates...

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“TOO many shops and not enough shoppers.”

This was the stark headline from the think-tank Centre for Cities in its report “Checking Out: The varying performance of the high street across the country” this month.

Sadly, Newport, just a short distance from my home in Cardiff, occupies the top spot for high street vacancy rates in the UK’s largest cities, with almost one in five shops now empty.

The data-led report offers some pragmatic solutions to address the continuing decline of our high streets, such as building more houses in our city centres and making it easier for people to travel to their local high street.

The reimagining of our high streets and diversification away from shops is also proposed, along with improvements to the public realm.

According to Centre for Cities CEO Andrew Carter: “The high street has long been the bellwether of the local economy. Shuttered-up shops influence people’s opinions about how successful their area is. City centres that struggle are oversupplied with shops and under-supplied with people”

While I wholeheartedly, agree with the findings and recommendations of the report, I think it’s important that we recognise, that we, as society, and as consumers, have been complicit in spearheading and accelerating the decline of our high streets. We must take some personal responsibility for this.