Advertisement

How Covid has ‘accelerated’ change on the high street

The current pandemic has ‘accelerated’ change on Britain’s high streets with more people shopping online and major chains struggling, MPs have been told.

At a meeting of the housing, communities and local government committee yesterday, members were told how lockdown measures and the current Covid crisis had impacted traditional high streets.

Scott Corfe, a research director at the Social Market Foundation, told MPs the pandemic has ‘accelerated a lot of the trends we were already seeing’ prior to last March.

‘During the pandemic we’ve seen a shift towards online retail,’ said Mr Corfe.

‘Some evidence suggests this is going to be a permanent change in shopping behaviours. So, one study by Retail Economics estimates that a quarter of the population is going to permanently change their shopping habits, even as we get out of lockdown.

‘Similarly, the pandemic has seen a shift towards home working and the evidence here is that is probably going to be a semi-permanent shift.  We might not be working at home every day of the week, but we’re probably moving over to a hybrid model.

‘What we’re going to see is a structural decline in demand for high street retail space and then also in city centres, a structural decline in demand for office space.’

Looking forward, Mr Corfe said there will need to be a lot more thinking about what needs to be done about ‘how do we fund the regeneration of our towns and cities in an age where people are shopping online and working from home’.

The District Councils Network’s lead for economic development, Cllr Mark Crane, said the pandemic had made the switch to online shopping happen ‘much quicker’.

‘I think there are some household names that we’ve come to know and love on our high street which will no longer exist, post COVID, though many of those may well have gone in future in any case,’ said Cllr Crane.

‘I think that it’s up to local councils and local people to make sure that their high street reflects what they want. and there will be opportunities as a result of this, as well as all the businesses lost,’ he added,

‘There will be new opportunities for people to start businesses, some of which we probably haven’t even thought of today, and some of which are just coming to the fore and with our clients and future.’

But Paul Swinney, director of policy and research at Centre for Cities said there were some reasons to feel optimistic.

‘If you look at the way that people returned back to shops when restrictions were lifted back in the summer and into September, there is quite still a large demand to go and shop in physical stores,’ said Mr Swinney.

He added that many high streets, which were struggling before the lockdown, like Birkenhead, Blackpool and Wigan have actually seen the strongest bounce back.

‘The places that have actually struggled are the places that went in very strong.

‘I think the issue we will see is that most places that have bounced back in the short term have bounced back to a position of weakness, and they will face challenges in the years to come, or places like London and Manchester really big challenges short-term, but in the longer term actually I think it’d be okay because people are going into work in the centre of London, I think will continue to do so. And they’ve got money in their pockets and they want to spend,’ said Mr Swinney.

Photo Credit – Jamie Hailstone

Comments

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Help us break the news – share your information, opinion or analysis
Back to top