A selection of facts and visuals from the Mary Portas report into the future of the high street

1. THE BIG PICTURE
The Portas Review of the
High Street 2011 –
selected facts and stats

2. The Portas Review into the future of
the High Street
• An independent review by a
leading London Consultant
commissioned by the Prime
Minister
• It analyses the causes of high
street decline and comes up
with 28 recommendations
• Not all causes are due to Big
Chain stores – the report is
also critical of poor business
practices by some small high
street businesses
• The rise of e-commerce and
m-commerce are also a key
factor
“I don’t want to live in a Britain
that doesn’t care about
community. And I believe that
our high streets are a really
important part of pulling people
together in a way that a
supermarket or shopping mall,
however convenient, however
entertaining and however slick,
just never can”
Mary
PortasDownload
report

3. The threat to our high streets from large
multiple retailers
• Town Centre vacancy rates doubling over
the last two years
• The number of town centre stores fell by
almost 15,000 between 2000 and 2009
with an estimated further 10,000 losses
over the past couple of years
• Nearly one in six shops stands vacant
• of the 565 large grocery stores that
opened between 2001 and 2006, the vast
majority – 99.5% – were opened by large
multiple retailers
• In the last decade, the amount of out-of-
town floorspace has risen by 30% while
in town floorspace has dropped by 14%.
• Supermarkets now allocate more than
one third of their floor space to non-food
sales
“What really worries me is that
the big supermarkets don’t just
sell food anymore, but all
manner of things that people
used to buy on the high street.
They’ve been expanding their
reach into homewares,
stationery, books, flowers – you
name it”.
Mary
Portas

4. The number of superstores in the UK has grown
by 35% while all other forms of grocery outlet
have declined
-60 -40 -20 0 20 40
Superstores
Smaller stores
Food specialists
Off licences and tobacconists
Supermarkets
small
Percentage change in
UK store numbers
2001 to 2011
Source: Portas report pg 18

5. Total consumer
spending rates
away from the
high street now
over 50%
Year 2000
Year 2011 Year 2014 *
*estimated
Figures rounded
up to the nearest
whole number

6. Town centre:
the downward
spiral
Reduced footfall
in an area
Weakens
performance of
nearby stores
Surrounding area
gets weaker
Increases
likelihood of
further store
closures
Portas review
page 5