Today’s Conference A (Retail) Sense of Place
• What role does retail play in towns and cities? Professor Leigh Sparks, • How does retail and consumer space Institute for Retail Studies, reflect/respond to changing consumer University of Stirling practices? • The balance between sustainability and retail?
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Structure Where are you from?
• There’s Something about Stirling • I’m from a place, a town, a • Crisis on the High Street meets The New community Normal • The Three Reviews: Portas, Grimsey and • It means something to me and it defines parts of me Fraser • Future Places • So what makes that place?
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1 Stirling: Scotland’s Heart A (Wikipedia) Picture of Stirling
• Stirling is a city in central Scotland. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old town. Stirling is the administrative centre for the Stirling council area, and is traditionally the county town of Stirlingshire. The city is located several miles to the west of the mouth of the River Forth. Historically it was strategically important as the "Gateway to the Highlands", with its position near the Highland Boundary Fault between the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands • One of the principal royal strongholds of the Kingdom of Scotland, Stirling was created a Royal burgh by King David I in 1130. Once the capital of Scotland, Stirling contains the Great Hall and the Renaissance Palace within Stirling Castle. Stirling also has its medieval parish church, the Church of the Holy Rude, where King James VI was crowned King of Scots. • Stirling is a centre for local government, higher education, retail, and industry.
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A (Wikipedia) Picture of Stirling
• Stirling is a city in central Scotland. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old town. Stirling is the administrative centre for the Stirling council area, and is traditionally the county town of Stirlingshire. The city is located several miles to the west of the mouth of the River Forth. Historically it was strategically important as the "Gateway to the Highlands", with its position near the Highland Boundary Fault between the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands
• One of the principal royal strongholds of the Kingdom of Scotland, Stirling was created a Royal burgh by King David I in 1130. Once the capital of Scotland , Stirling contains the Great Hall and the Renaissance Palace within Stirling Castle. Stirling also has its medieval parish church, the Church of the Holy Rude, where King James VI was crowned King of Scots.
• Stirling is a centre for local government, higher education, retail, and industry.
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2 Stirling Decentralisation
• Offices – Prudential, Ogilvie • Council Administration • Tourism – Castle, Bannockburn, Wallace • Sport – Annfield to Forthbank • Light Industrial • Schools (and Colleges and Universities) • Cinema • Hotels • Residential Accommodation • Services e.g. Post Office, Dental Practices
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Stirling Retail Stirling’s Retail Issues Today
• Castle and Broad Street • Movement Downhill and Decentralisation • Thistles – Thistle Centre 1970s • Decentralisation – Fine Fare & MFI St. Ninians 1970s • Secondary – Springkerse 1980s Streets – Thistles Phase 2 late 1990s • Vacancy Rates – Individual • Operational • Aldi, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Waitrose, Issues Dobbies, Klondyke, Greggs, Post Office
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3 Stirling’s Wider “Problems”? Crisis on the High Street
• Reasons to Visit? • Folk, Work, Place? • Stirling = ?? • Vacant Space • Private vs Public • Areas and Connectivity • Lack of opportunities?
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Consumer Change Retail Market Change
• Time and Money • Concentration • Demographics – (Food “Big 4”) • Access and Travel • Scale • Product and Service • Superstore and Demands Hypermarket • Product and Process • Decentralisation Innovation • Retail Brands
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4 Retail Change The New Normal?
• Long Run Structural • Mono-format Change Breakdown – Internet shopping – Discounters c1993 becomes mainstream Food: National store – Convenience c1995 – based picking and – Internet c1999 Emerging Dark Stores – Non Food: National and International operations
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The New Normal? The New Normal?
• Recession • Convenience – Price – Growth Sector – Discounters – Affiliates • Food based – Corporates • Non-Food Based • Convenience Culture and Relocalisation
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5 The New Normal? The New Normal?
• The Retail Revolution has changed: – How we shop • Localisation – How we think about • Specialisation shopping • Re-imagining – How we tell others about shopping and retailing – How retailers sell – Retail operations and practices
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The New Normal? Too Many Shops/Too Much (Wrong) Space
• Structural Change – Consumer behaviour – Business reactions • From Adapting our Lifestyles to the Retail • Recessionary Overlay Offer to now the Retail – Consumer concerns Offer fitting our Lifestyles – The new realities in property and banking • Spatial Change – We need less space – We need better fit space
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6 Town Centres and High Streets The Issue?
• Decline in importance “Town centres, as we currently see them, and as • Concentration of area most people nostalgically romanticise them, are (prime zone) in the main anachronistic irrelevancies unsuited • Costs have risen faster to the changed consumer, business, social and • Rates are a big issue economic world. We do no one any favours by • Vacancies and clinging to an outdated vision of a past that dereliction – not just ex- arguably never existed, and certainly does not shops and not just match our modern twenty-first century society.” street level
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Portas, Grimsey and Fraser The Three Reviews
Portas Grimsey Fraser
Management of Towns/Places PPP
Start-ups/Market Skills PP
Rates PPP
Parking PP
Uses/Use Classes PPP
TCF PPP
Large Retail Support PP
Vacant Property Issues PP
Planning Engagement PP
Information/Evidence PPP
Community Hubs PP
Digital Futures PP
Investment Models PP
Minister/Government PP www.stirlingretail.com www.stirlingretail.com Town Centre Living PP
7 Portas, Grimsey and Fraser The Fraser Review
• Three reviews – others available • Lots of reports out there • Patrick Geddes: Folk, Work, Place • Much similarity if some different explanations – Town Centres First and emphases – Town Centre Living • Key differences: – Vibrant Local Economies – Portas and Grimsey on technology/digital – Enterprising Communities – Portas (high streets, shops, markets) and Fraser – Accessible Public Services (not retailing, Patrick Geddes (folk, work, place)) – Digital Towns – Pro-Active Planning www.stirlingretail.com www.stirlingretail.com
Town Centre Action Plan (TCAP) Scotland’s Towns Partnership and TCAP One Year On
• Government accepted the Fraser Review and developed the Town Centre Action Plan • Members • Town Centre First Principle agreed with COSLA • Partners • Various demonstration projects against each of the • Sponsors 6 themes • Media • Scotland’s Towns Partnership – the “go-to” body • Projects • Other projects and avenues being explored • Alignment within government
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8 Business Improvement Districts Future Places and Development Trusts
• Scottish BIDS legislation differs to that in England in a number of ways – broader, more involvement and impact • Development Trusts • SNP’s Community Empowerment Bill 2015
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Strategic Objectives of the Scottish Why do Places Matter? Government
• Defining Feature Objectives Retail or Town Centre Issues • Vital Resource Wealthier and Fairer Vitality of places and wide social access to retail spaces • Social and Economic Healthier Retailers as agency of change Benefits Safer and Stronger The need to develop communities and places
• Improve Quality of Life Smarter The role of retailing in providing education and careers; • Heart of Government broadband etc availability and opportunities Greener Reducing the social and public impact of retail activities Priorities
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9 Reinventing and Reimagining Positive Choices for People Places
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The Fraser Review Today’s Questions
What role does retail play in towns and Retail is a key player but is rarely the • Economic Creativity and cities? (only) driver and we need to focus on linkages and associations Enterprise How does retail and consumer space Places and spaces need to be of suitable • The Democratic Right to reflect/respond to changing consumer quality, provide suitable experiences and Sharing Resources practices? be active, accessible and attractive • Places are our True Eco- The balance between sustainability and Towns are sustainable and need to be retail? supported as such – the full costs of Towns development need to be recognised and the levers adjusted accordingly
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10 Contact Points
Web: www.stirlingretail.com Email: [email protected] Telephone: 01786 467384 Twitter: sparks_stirling
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