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Local shopping - the 10 minute city
Many older neighbourhoods have small local (non-high street) shopping areas tucked into them. Unfortunately many of these shop fronts have been converted to residences (such as the north end of Petherton Rd), depriving residents of convenient local businesses that can easily be reached on foot or by bike. The result is more people driving to large superstores (a horrible use of urban space with their giant parking lots). Planning laws should be changed to dis-allow conversion of local retail to residential, as well as requiring residences that were formerly retail to be returned to retail when next sold. As a fallback the council could buy the space and rent it at reduced rates to new local businesses such as small grocers, restaurants or even local delivery hubs to cut down on vehicle journeys. This could be a hyper-local version of Paris’s 15 minute city. Allowing local residents to fulfill the majority of their needs in their neighbourhoods would both reduce traffic and foster more community - encouraging people to get to know their neighbours and shopkeepers.
Suggested by schodorf
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Community Member 4 years agoForcing superstores to charge for car parking, with an enhanced charge for SUVs and vans would be good too
antonyfry
Community Member 4 years agoReduce business rates and take a covid dividend tax from those businesses, such as Amazon, who saw there profits rise during lockdowns.
Anonymous - account deleted
Community Member 4 years agoLots of small and tiny businesses sell on Amazon - I do myself. I sell silver items I make on Amazon Handmade, and I also sell my self-published novels there. Penalize Amazon, and you're also penalizing loads of small businesses - as well...
Show full commentLots of small and tiny businesses sell on Amazon - I do myself. I sell silver items I make on Amazon Handmade, and I also sell my self-published novels there. Penalize Amazon, and you're also penalizing loads of small businesses - as well as Amazon's customers, since Amazon will simply pass the tax on to its customers. Is that what you really want?
Show less of commentEUcitizen
Community Member 4 years agoA good idea to subsidise rent in those small "hole in the wall" newly empty places. As suggested, look to Paris, and prioritise feel-good shops, like cheese, vegetables, wine etc. as well as small family restaurants and cafés.
Show full commentA good idea to subsidise rent in those small "hole in the wall" newly empty places. As suggested, look to Paris, and prioritise feel-good shops, like cheese, vegetables, wine etc. as well as small family restaurants and cafés.
Show less of commentlivehere
Community Member 4 years agoAlso, in some areas the local mini-high streets have been lost to very upmarket retail outlets, and to high-end, bars, restaurants, eateries. This leaves local communities with only large supermarkets, or even nowhere to buy food and other...
Show full commentAlso, in some areas the local mini-high streets have been lost to very upmarket retail outlets, and to high-end, bars, restaurants, eateries. This leaves local communities with only large supermarkets, or even nowhere to buy food and other essentials. My locality used to have a baker, a greengrocer, a 'dairy' corner store, and a couple of other ordinary neighbourhood shops. Now it mostly has bars and restaurants, and one extremely pricey convenience store with little fresh food. Instead of returning the centre of London, the West End, and etc, to pre-Covid levels and type of activity, local areas all over London should be redesigned. There used to be rates reductions for 'essential' local amenity shops - perhaps this still applies but is not much help for small bakers and greengrocers, etc, given the staggeringly high rates and rents in London. This scheme should be upgraded, and made fit for purpose, so that communities can have their local shopping centres back. Instead of focusing on returning central London and the West End to 'business as usual', funding, energy and expertise should be poured into redistributing the arts, leisure and hospitality industries into local centres all over London. A major redesign is vital - do away with the tedious long strips of busy road with lines of shops along them. Make centres away for the road, put in 'village greens', shift the housing off the main road. Each new high street and green area could have its own characteristics. All should provide support facilities and environment for working from home. Reinvent the local high street, decentralise London, make it sustainable.
Show less of commentEnna
Community Member 4 years agoAgreed and we need to make it easier for businesses to operate. The high rents in London make it very difficult for small businesses to open and make profit. We need a dialogue with landlords to try and get the rents reduced.
Show full commentTo make local...
Agreed and we need to make it easier for businesses to operate. The high rents in London make it very difficult for small businesses to open and make profit. We need a dialogue with landlords to try and get the rents reduced.
Show less of commentTo make local High Street attractive and useful we need a more active role by the council. In Italian towns there are strict rules as to what kinds of businesses can open and where. We don’t need more fried chicken and betting shops opening, so unhealthy and drag an area downhill. And about some guidelines on the aesthetic look of the high street shop fronts?
Anonymous - account deleted
Community Member 4 years agoBusiness rates are far too high. The whole system needs rethinking to become fairer, and to encourage the growth of small businesses.
JJChampion
Community Member 4 years ago"We need to make it easier for small businesses to operate". I don't think I've ever met even a somewhat sensible person who respects the rent system for smaller independent businesses. This is linked to the fact we need more support for...
Show full comment"We need to make it easier for small businesses to operate". I don't think I've ever met even a somewhat sensible person who respects the rent system for smaller independent businesses. This is linked to the fact we need more support for them in every aspect; government, councils and members of the public can all contribute. I mean I go into libraries and sometimes request books to be bought in and the library buys them not from a local book shop but from Amazon - a company that is rapidly precipitating the demise of libraries! However, I think people just don't realise the import of a local tax-obeying economy.
That's cool about Italy. I didn't know that :) I have met Italians who are very anti mass production though and always promote "the local store". Particularly when it comes to food. I just think people need to made more aware of where their money goes when it goes to local shops and when it goes to mass supermarkets.
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