Edinburgh International TV Festival: The dying high street is affecting communities and infrastructures, says Mary Portas
"I wasn't prepared for the criticism doing the Portas Review brought," admitted Mary Portas, delivering the alternative MacTaggart address at the Edinburgh International TV Festival.
"All I did was a review that I believed was right and just wanted to put communities back into our high streets. In my mind I gave good recommendations and gave my time for free but people made it political," she added.
In conversation with Richard Bacon Portas discussed her early career from head of display at Topshop to creative director of Harvey Nichols to prime time TV star.
Of the Portas Review she admits she wasn't prepared for the attention the report garnered, commenting: "I'm a bit like tigger, I just think 'Oh, yes' and go for things."
When Bacon suggested the review gained a higher profile because her name was attached Portas argued that other 'celebrities' had been appointed to handle reviews as well and name checked fellow Channel 4 alumni Kirstie Allsopp who was appointed in 2007 to head a review of home buying.
According to Portas her review struck a nerve "because it is a massive issue".
She explained: "The dying high street is affecting communities and infrastructures. In doing my television shows I travelled the country and on most high streets the only shops are a Basement Booze and a chicken shop and it's just tragic.
"For me it wasn't about being a star, I believe in making change happen and I genuinely think we can make change happen."
Portas believes the role of the high street has been changed by the advent of digital but that its role is about “so much more than shops".
"Every 50 years how we buy, how we live and how we consume changes.
“What we need to do now is look at the role of the high street and take into consideration its role in the rest of our lives. For shopping we have the internet but what it cannot take away from the high street is the element of community and interaction.
"The infrastructure that the high street gives is not just about shops. If a town has a big youth population there should be a youth centre. I worked in one town where a woman opened a crèche on her high street because the people couldn't afford nannies. There was a little shop at the back, where you could buy and swap kids clothes and you could buy a coffee for a couple of quid. People would drop their kids and shop and socialise."
Apparent in Portas' interview is a sense of disappointment that her review was politicised which in her eyes were just "good recommendations for addressing a massive issue".
She furthered: "I hate that it's become political and it's silly, but it's like TV reviews in a way, the good ones go to your head, the bad ones go to your heart," and even admits crying down the phone to Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger over the criticism she faced.
In how to move the high street forward Portas said she was there purely "to highlight" what was going on adding that reviving the high street will take "massive structures" which are outlined in the review.
Positively though, she said: "Change on the high street will happen. If someone had said 20 years ago that coffee shops would be everywhere and you'd be spending £3 to £4 a day on coffee, £20 a week, you'd have said that was ridiculous. When it comes to the high street I believe it [change] will begin happen at an organic level."