Business, Innovation and Skills CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Paul Turner-Mitchell

In a city that was once referred to as the best-governed place in the industrial world, you don’t have to look far to get a strong sense of municipal innovation. The Joseph Chamberlain memorial in front of Birmingham’s central library is a proud reminder of the 19th century pioneering reforms that took gas and water into municipal ownership, cleared the slums and introduced a city park system.

Nowadays, though, it would be something of an exaggeration to say Chamberlain’s pioneering municipal spirit lives on when it comes to getting to grips with one of the biggest problems facing Birmingham today—its declining high street.

Almost one in four shops stand empty in Birmingham city centre according to latest Local Data Company figures. Things are so bad that up to 50 local independent shop owners have threatened to go on a mass strike for a day, closing their shops in protest at a lack of action shown by the Council.

Against this backdrop there is an expectation for councils to use resources provided by central government to deliver support to high streets as quickly as possible. “Urgent action is required if we are going to help our high streets turn a corner in 2013,” exhorted Cllr Peter Box, chairman of the Local Government Association’s economy and transport board last December.

But Birmingham, like many local authorities up and down the country, has yet to spend a single penny of its £100,000 High Street Innovation Fund dubbed ‘Portas Plus’ money awarded a year ago. Grant Shapps, the then minister with responsibility for the high street, said he wanted to see this money used by local authorities to help people turn “creative ideas into reality to ensure their high streets thrive long into the future”. The £10million fund, which issued 100 awards of £100,000 to towns and cities across the country to bring empty shops back into use, came with a warning from Mary Portas that high streets could “disappear forever” without urgent action.

Freedom of Information figures, however, suggests this warning fell on deaf ears. Of 72 local authorities that responded to a request for a breakdown of how they’ve spent the money, 47 haven’t spent one single penny. One local authority even turned the grant down.

Paul Turner Mitchell, a Rochdale independent shop owner and contributor to the Mary Portas high street review, who submitted the FOI requests, said it was maddening that money continued to sit in council bank accounts when there was a crisis on the high street. So far just £519,363.22 out of £7.2m has been spent—about 7%.

“60% of local authorities haven’t done anything with this money,” he said. “Looking at these figures you can only conclude that councils are either complacent about the problems on the high street or they simply don’t know what to do about it. Either way ministers need to look at ways of getting high street funding out to the coalface much quicker. Bureaucratic dawdling is the last thing we need.”

Others have also expressed concern at the speed in which local authorities are acting in terms of delivering high street policy. “In a commercial world clear strategic objectives and speedy implantation are required,” said Bill Grimsey, former chief executive of Wickes, Iceland and Focus DIY. “Both of these qualities are absent in our local authorities.”

On the eve of the Chancellor’s budget and with growing calls to support Britain’s biggest private sector employer, Turner Mitchell says retailers want to see fairer business rates from the Chancellor and local authorities taking a more creative approach to support high streets. At the moment, he says, there are few signs of innovation taking root.

Looking through a breakdown of the Innovation Fund figures it’s hard not to disagree. Far from encouraging a culture of experimentalism and creativity on the high street, where money has been spent it’s been frittered away on less than inspiring projects.

Blackburn spent £10,900 on Christmas lights and Ipswich spent £10,000 on a Christmas light switch on, for example. Stevenage spent £10,038 on a leisure centre ramp and Derby spent £25,150 on a retail destination study. Bassetlaw spent £10,000 for signage and planters, Haringey spent £4,250 on Christmas flyers and Lambeth Council is spending £87,000 on a business manager’s salary. North Tyneside spent £1,525 to hire Santa Claus and Vale of White Horse district council spent £1,000 on reindeer. Perhaps most exciting of all was Swale’s spend of £164.60 on a snow machine.

To put this into context, it’s worth revisiting the Portas Review published in December 2011 to get an idea of what Mary Portas wanted councils to be doing. “This should be game-changing stuff and thoughtful engagement,” she said. “Not just the usual suspects round a table planning the Christmas decorations.”

Yet instead of being used to drive innovation and kickstart fresh thinking for beleaguered high streets, the money has all too often been used to support basic services and cover shortfalls in other budgets.

Evidence of this can be seen in the money being spent on a concrete plinth, a ramp to a leisure centre, to pay for a marketing officer, street furniture and Christmas lights. Hardly what Portas would call “game-changing stuff”.

“It is very worrying seeing an innovation fund being used for tired, unoriginal ideas,” said Simon Danczuk MP, a member of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, and a critic of Government high street policy. “At a time when there’s not much money to go around, we shouldn’t be just doling millions out willy-nilly.

“There are plenty of people with fantastic ideas who could have put this money to much greater use than a concrete plinth or a Santa Claus outfit. The Government really needs to get to grips with high street policy. It’s as though they never think beyond the press release.”

Danczuk originally criticized the way money was allocated from the High Street Innovation Fund, pointing out that it was based on a completely flawed formula.

This view appears to be supported by some local authorities. “The grant was determined by DCLG using rates of empty non-domestic properties, not empty shops, as they were not in possession of such data,” explains Barry Fawcett, head of business liaison and investment at Knowlsey Council. He adds that Knowlsey’s empty shops figures have been consistently much lower than national and regional averages. One explanation as to why many authorities haven’t spent the money could be that they don’t have a serious empty shops problem and that the money went to the wrong areas.

Certainly the picture that’s emerging of a Government that doesn’t have figures on empty shops and local authorities doing nothing with funding to tackle this problem doesn’t augur well for the future of the high street. But according to Turner Mitchell it’s not all doom and gloom and some local authorities are spending the money wisely.

Wyre Forest District Council, for example, has spent £12,000 on bringing 10 empty shops back into use. “Thankfully some councils get it,” says Turner Mitchell. “But the vast majority are floundering.”

Notes:-

List of recipients of the fund—http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120919132719/http:/www.communities.gov.uk/documents/regeneration/pdf/2120116.pdf

Government press release announcing the fund—
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/grant-shapps-offers-portas-plus-plan-to-revive-ailing-high-streets

In what Mr Shapps referred to as a ‘Portas-Plus’ response, a new package of help has been drawn up including:

A multi-million pound High Street Innovation Fund—kick started by £10 million of taxpayers money focussed on bringing empty shops back into use—which, if supplemented by both councils and landlords, could see £30 million going to support new business start-ups whilst bringing empty High Street properties back into use.

FOI Findings

Hillingdon—£0

Lambeth—£3,000.00 (first salary payment of a Business Manager total costings £87,000)

Gravesham—£0

Fareham—£0

North East Lincolnshire—£0

Leicester—£0

Stockport—£0

Ealing—£0

Preston—£0

Middlesbrough—£64,252 (inc. £20,000 business mentoring/development, £40,000 business rate discounts)

Newham—£0

Knowsley—£0

South Somerset—£0

Manchester—£0

Vale of White Horse—£11,193.82 (inc. £1,000.00 for reindeer, £450.00 Christmas extravaganza video, £485.00 Children’s farm for Christmas Extravaganza, £1,500 magazine advertising)

Liverpool—£0

Southwark—£0

Sandwell—£41,851 (refuse to provide a breakdown of how it has been spent)

Gosport—£195 (town centre logo)

West Lindsay—£20,000 (grant to Market Rasen Portas Pilot for sustainable shop)

Bracknell—£750.00 (property search report)

North Somerset—£0

Kingston upon Hull—£48,249.79 (inc. £4,760.86 for replacement street signs, £5,563.70 nativity street theatre)

Redditch—£48,840.92 (grants for 3 businesses inc. £1,220 website & advertising & £1,470 for project management)

Oldham—£0

Bolton—£0

Gloucester—£5,000 (business rent and rates grant scheme)

Trafford—£0

Broxtowe—£12,355 (shop grants)

Birmingham—£0

Ashfield—£0

Northampton—£0

Blackburn—£10,900 (Christmas lights)

Ipswich—£36,000 (inc. £25,000 for market gazebos & £10,000 for Christmas light switch on)

Wandsworth—£0

Sheffield—£64,297 (retail incubator project plus with creation of 4 apprentice positions)

Westminster—£0

Walsall—£811.19 (internet access, design, marketing for pop up shop)

Haringey—£4,250.00 (Christmas events flyers)

Merton—£0

Wigan—£5,124.00 (portable stage and PA system)

Darlington—£776.00 (£276.00 land registry searches and £500 contrib to business rates)

Stevenage—£77,578.20 (inc. £37,665 for free parking, £10,00 for town centre patroller, £10,038 for a leisure centre ramp)

Doncaster—£0

Swale—£7,376.60 (inc, £1,200 Heart FM Ads, £491 Christmas leaflets, £164.60 snow machine, £449 local newspaper advertising)

Lewisham—£0

Derby—£25,150 (all for a retail destination study)

Brent—£0

Bolsover—£0

Epsom & Ewell Borough Council—£0

North Tyneside—£6,172.00 (inc. £1525 for Santa Claus, £3067 media campaign for Christmas)

Wirral—£0

Reigate and Banstead—£0

Greenwich—£0

Calderdale—£0 (NB refused the grant)

Rossendale—£0

Bassetlaw—£12,282 (inc. £10,000 for signage and planters)

Wyre Forest—£10,748.52 (business rate grants)

Lichfield—£2,210.00 (1,026.40 for consultation events, £400 for Christmas event & £694 for Christmas shopping crawl)

Watford—£0

Kirklees Council—£0

Blackpool Council—£0

Slough Borough Council—£0

Flyde Borough Council—£0

Croydon—£0

Wolverhampton City Council—£0

St. Helens Council—£0

Thurrock Council—£0

Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council—£0

North Warwickshire Council—£0

Three Rivers District Council—£0

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council—£0

So far £519,363.22 out of £7.2 million ie 7.21% spent.

Individual FOI’s available upon request.

13 March 2013