Taskforce formed to rejuvenate ailing High Streets
An alliance of leading figures from the worlds of banking, retail and property have announced their collaboration in the form of the Distressed retail Property Taskforce in order to seek ways and means to rehabilitate Britain’s ailing town centres.
Founding members of the new grouping include the British Council of Shopping Centres, the British Property Federation and the Local Government Association with representation from Lloyds Bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Booksellers Association.
They have set themselves a goal of establishing what the level of retail property indebtedness currently is in the UK, a situation where the valuation of shops or shopping centres has decreased beyond the debt incurred in their purchase.
This has led to many landlords being forced to charge high rents to meet their debt repayments, resulting in many units being shuttered, to the detriment of the banks who lent money.
The taskforce will seek means to force a resolution to such cases, either by encouraging owners to sell the property at a loss – or refurbish them to attract tenants.
For the next six months they will attempt to quantify the scale of the problem.
Mark Williams, chairman of the new body, said: "The taskforce recognises that our High Streets are going through a structural recalibration, rather than an economic cycle from which we will emerge over time.
"We have too many shops, the wrong size and under-invested. So the change in town centres that is required is significant and will require public and private sectors coming together to find ways of financing these changes.
"What we're talking about are essentially infrastructure projects that can future-proof our towns for the next 50 to 60 years.”