Portas Review Revealed
Published: 13 December, 2011
The long-awaited Portas Review includes 28 recommendations to save the high street
TV retail pundit and PR consultant Mary Portas has completed her six-month review of the state of the UK's high streets, and come up with a recipe for survival with 28 ingredients.
Among her key recommendations are:
- Empower successful Business Improvement Districts to take on more responsibilities and powers and become “Super-BIDs”, and legislate to allow landlords to become high street investors by contributing to their Business Improvement District.
- Establish a new “National Market Day” where budding shopkeepers can try their hand at operating a low-cost retail business, and make it easier for people to become market traders by removing unnecessary regulations so that anyone can trade on the high street unless there is a valid reason why not.
- Introduce business rate relief for start-ups, and link uplifts to RPI, not the current CPI.
- Introduce free controlled parking schemes for town centres
- Address the restrictive aspects of the ‘Use Class’ system to make it easier to change the uses of key properties on the high street, but put betting shops into a separate ‘Use Class’ of their own.
- Reintroduce and tighten a 'town centre first' planning policy.
- Encourage a contract of care between landlords and their commercial tenants by promoting the leasing code and supporting the use of lease structures other than upward only rent reviews, especially for small businesses
- Introduce incentives to prevent landlords – and especially banks - from leaving units vacant and permit compulsory purchase if these are ignored.
