We have all seen the headlines, 'High Street Collapse, 'High Street Crisis' and my personal favourite for over the top sensationalism 'Hell on the High Street'. All of these refer to the continuing decline of the UK High street in cities and towns around the country. Many potential solutions have been postured, reduced business rates, shop sharing and free local parking but none of these have successfully been implemented and stemmed the tide of the high street's apparently inevitable demise.
The rapid rise of the internet retail giants has been attributed as the primary cause for the decline with tech savy shoppers much more inclined to take advantage of the convivence and in most cases savings offered online. Rather than trying to save a clearly outdated high street model, I ask you if there is another way? What about reusing these spaces to house the ever-growing armies of flexible workers who are looking for more local office locations rather than completing their usual commuting slog into metropolitan city hubs?
Is there a bright new future for our failing department stores?
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Iain Sinnott, Sales Director Vanilla IP and Uboss[/caption]
With a little bit of flexibility in the planning world and a bit of creativity from the buyer of House of Fraser and alike, you could have a winning combination for the High Street and for some of the communities outside the M25 and in other areas surrounding the UK’s major cities. It needn’t be restricted just to department store buildings either. Any convertible space, close to a rail link and a retail centre with high speed internet is a potential shared office. They might even occupy the first-floor spaces above a parade of town centre shops.
Flexible working, home working, remote collaboration are all buzz words at the moment, but some limiting realities still need to be addressed.
- Not all homes are conducive to home working, failing to have the right space, noise control or understanding cohabitors
- People like to be part of a physical team so home working is a part-time requirement
- Domestic technology including broadband and routers can under perform and not provide the requisite security for certain industry sectors
- Businesses don't trust everyone to perform as a home worker
In big city centres shared workspace is a booming industry, creating a community of workers from disparate employers, so why not deliver this in the suburbs and surrounding satellite towns too? Imagine an old department store where 50% of the space is now a selection of open work spaces, meeting rooms and individual small offices whilst the other 50% is a combination of retail and food concessions which creates the perfect work village and generates the retail footfall the high street and town centres so desperately crave.
The office users get the home/work balance they need for kids, clubs, community and transport links get a reduction of peak time activity reducing pressure on their increasingly overburdened infrastructure. It's not only office users that benefit. Employers can ensure their staff are working in suitable surroundings and can take advantage of the high-speed core connections available in town centres.
This could transform the timetable of the working day too. Enabling a more psychologically friendly local start time for a few days a week at least, preserving the two-hour commute to only a couple of days a week for the most important visits to the city centre office. If everyone operated a similar system you might even be able to sit down and work on the train with the reduced consumer rat race taking place every day!
