The high street pummelling proves once again that empty government slogans are not enough

The government, faced with hollowed-out communities asking themselves why they listened to empty Tory talk of aspiration and levelling up, cannot deliberate any longer over a plan to fix the high street crisis, writes James Moore

Debenhams stores are to close putting 12,000 jobs at risk (AFP via Getty)

The collapse of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group and the demise of Debenhams is a devastating combination; a double high street haymaker in the form of a nasty jab to the head followed by an upper cut.  

The one-two follows a series of body blows courtesy of the steady flow of pre-pandemic closures that were already in train. The latter has served to charge up the process.  

Some 13,000 jobs are at risk at places like Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Burton and Dorothy Perkins, now Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia has collapsed into administration. Bar a miracle, the jobs of 12,000 Debenhams employees are gone, now JD Sports, the last potential buyer, is out. The Christmas season can sometimes be terribly cruel.  

How much will ultimately be left when the battered body of the overmatched British high street is pulled from the floor? What’s happened to these chains is a brutal levelling down in action. In the newly Tory “red wall”, and in other parts of the country, the number of boarded-up shopfronts is growing. How long before there’s tumbleweed blowing down their pedestrianised centres?  

The prestige retail venues will remain. As it was explained to me, bricks-and-mortar outfits will maybe have one-third of their number that make money, another third that break even, and a long tail of loss-makers.  

The trouble is that the number of profitable outlets was declining before the pandemic.  

Next boss Lord Wolfson once used a trading statement to outline a possible future in which the group had no retail stores. At the time it was possible to argue that his vision was dystopian.  

Now? Not so much.

Primark will be in every retail hub that survives the retail apocalypse. It has proven that it is possible to make money without selling so much as a single sock online. If your offer is good enough, the punters will come.  

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group will be there too, most likely. He may yet salvage something from Arcadia. The would-be king of the high street took several tilts at Debs. Trouble is, having Ashley at the door is too much for some to stomach.  

The TUC says the government must now intervene. “Unions stand ready to work with ministers and employers on sector-by-sector recovery plans,” said general secretary Frances O’Grady while urging a boost to universal credit to help thousands of newly unemployed workers get back on their feet.  

Faced with hollowed-out communities asking themselves why they listened to empty Tory talk of aspiration and levelling up, it might have to.

The trouble is, the warning signs were there for years and the response was hand-wringing. A review here, some money there, to fund the pet project of a famous name. You can file them under the heading “public relations”.  

Meanwhile, the Amazonian elephant stomps around, paying some small change and half a packet of toffees in corporation tax from one pocket and a melted Mars Bar in business rates from the other.  

Linked to property and property values, business rates are harder to avoid than corporation tax. But they’re easy for online operators to game.  Amazon, Boohoo and the rest are careful to site their cavernous warehouses where they’re low.  

The gnashing and wailing of those on the wrong end of this has gone unheard.  

Now it needs to be, not least because some of those still engaged in the unequal struggle are trying to do things better. Conditions need to be created for the likes of John Lewis and Richer Sounds to survive and thrive. Some ideas for what to replace retreating stores with in Britain’s increasingly empty highs streets are also urgently needed, at least if “levelling up” isn’t to end up in the bin of sad government slogans.