Financial News
- 7 February 2012, 3:51
£1m Portas Contest To Breathe Life Into Towns
Towns are being offered a slice from a £1m pot to come up with ideas for reviving their high streets.
The Government-run competition will see 12 areas being given financial backing and advice from a Whitehall team and retail guru Mary Portas.
The idea was born out of Ms Portas' review into high street decline, commissioned by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Announcing the competition, Local Government Minister Grant Shapps told Sky News: "We need Town Teams to come together and put their ideas forward.
"They'll get help, not just that money but actually Mary Portas' attention and help and assistance from the Government.
"And we'll actually help them to try out their ideas and spread those across the rest of the country."
Winning bids will become "Portas Pilots" and, if successful, the scheme will be expanded across the country.
Sky News visited the town of Hatfield in Hertfordshire, which is in Mr Shapps' constituency.
Its high street is almost deserted and there are almost as many empty shops as open ones.
A supermarket at one end of the street brings in the shoppers but the local residents have little pride in the rest of the area.
Mother and daughter Emma Terry and Rose Mills have lived in Hatfield almost all their lives.
"Years ago it was really nice," says Ms Mills.
"There were fountains, an indoor market and shops here.
"There was a reason to come here then, but not now."
Ms Terry believes high rent rates are behind the town's decline.
Mr Shapps said the contest would give towns hit by stiff competition from Internet shopping and out-of-town shopping centres a chance to regenerate their areas.
He added: "I want to see how these town teams plan to try new things, experiment and ensure that their high streets and parades become destinations for local people want to be."
what do you think?
goldwing uk
Is this not just a little bit of cart before the horse, just a little to late. they take the new school as payola for the out of town supper store, that kills off all the small shops. now they got to find a way to right a wroung. Good luck on this one fools
kyle rambo
Getting people together wont change anything. Studied economics for two years and the problem is simple! CONSUMER CONFIDENCE! stop the media publishing that were in a recession and tell people that were not. I KID YOU NOT THIS WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING!
David Wragg
The media have a duty to report the truth - you obviously value propaganda more. No wonder so many dictators studied economics.
Grant Berry
The truth? lol what a fool you are.
wayne elson
Cut backs and high taxes people can't afford to there heating on let alone a shopping spree ,making city centres look nice will that work I think not .we meet faith. In our economy to get people spending.
ABritMum
We need to get our banks lending to small local business again and cut back on the number of supermarkets from the likes of Asda Sainsburys Morrisons and Tesco. They have helped steal our communities.
Mike Drouin
out of town retail park says it all ,we dont need some self opinionated woman to come up with fancy ideas that everyone knows is a waste of time . the large brown envolopes handed out by the big shed s willalways turn the planers minds .the smaller high streets shops who try to keep going need to have thier masive rents and rates cut to about 10% of what they are paying now ,also the media need to stop all the doom and gloom reporting ..also it is definatly a cart before the horse situation ,why is it that those in (so called ) charge never ever see whats coming , most of us can see what is going to happen way before them ,or is it the brown envolope syndrome .
ABritMum
Too right; our high-street was on the decline well before the Recession/Depression hit because of the global supermarkets...
grahammcneill2
this woman mp is the type of customer every shop assistant sees every day they come in looking for things to complain about i worked in the retail trade every day and saw her kind the type that comes in to a shop 1 minute before closing time on the pretext off shopping when what they really want is to keep the staff back from getting home.and who love nothing else than to make a nuisence of themselves
Jayne Cross Bunning
Which woman MP??
wayne elson
You could be the sort of person he is talking about
grahammcneill2
this woman will proberly come up with a whole range of stupid ideas like opening on xmas day because she is typical of the customer who cares little for the store staff and proberly thinks that they should spend every minute stuck at the back of a counter
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Grant Berry
have u been assulted by a foriegner or something?
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Grant Berry
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andy may
aspects of town centre retail business life i have experienced are: rents are too high, although starting to fall. rates are excessively high for the services one recieves in return from the council. councils view shops purely in terms of money making vehicles that they believe they should have a slice of, and fail to recognise what they give to a town/society. megalomaniac supermarkets provide out of town sites with free parking, exacerbated by councils obsession to charge for parking in town centres. internet shopping. underhand techniques by the megalomaniacs to destroy all other competition. prohibitive employment law for small businesses. i'm only left wondering why it is our high streets are urban wastelands!!!!!!!!
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Val Bonney
Good idea - hope it helps bring back some pride and pleasure in people's local environment :-)
Karen Henry
We all know what has killed off the high street, the retail parks and supermarkets. It doesn't take the brains of an archbishop to work that one out!!!! It will only get worse as Britain turns into the biggest supermarket country where everything will be owned and run by the big 4.
David Wragg
Hatfield suffered when the aircraft factory closed. I have little faith in Portas as she didn't speak to any of the leading retailers and some of her comments in the past have been just silly. For example, she told travel agents that they should tell their clients about little hotels and out of the way bistros - how could they have such knowledge on a global scale? Even if they did, the hotelsm and bistros would be so overcrowded that the appeal would go. Then again, Cameron's judgement is simply awful - the man is only interested in hanging on to power.
Grant Berry
Portass, is a self serving non-job.
Mike Drouin
SKY if all this news was on paper it would have been wraping for fish and chips for days .its that old and virtuly useless and i am talking about all the pages you purport to be news .
Gordon Berry
Portas sounds a bit like Neptune in trying to hold the tide back. Who wants to shop in a town where the parking is very limited and expensive and you have to keep your eye on the clock in case some efficious warden gives you a ticket. The towns have finished the coucils have seen to that. I find that some of the comments that Portas makes are in many cases not thought through. we need to see more independent retailers in the shopping centres as they cannot make it pay in the town centres.
gypsy56
Bet she ends up with more than the million being offered for ideas. Here's one for free - close all out of town superstores and make parking in towns free.
goldwing uk
6:25am on 4/2/2012
Is it not a little bit of "cart before the horse" here, they take the new school as payola to grant the out-of-town supper stores plans, that kills of the high street. Now they got to find a real good way to right a wroung. GOOD LUCK