nef

1
Ghost Towns, Clone Towns and Home Towns

• nef
• Guy Rubin
• Action for Market Towns Newmarket
• October 11 2006

2
Agenda

• Introduction
• Clone Town Britain
• Policy Prescriptions

3
nef (the new economics foundation)

• Think and Do Tank
• Economics as if people and planet mattered
• UK Think Tank of the Year 2002/03
• Clone Town Britain
• Ghost Town Britain
• Thriving Communities
• Interdependence Day
• Access to Finance
• The Happy Planet

4
Ghost Town Britain

• General stores closing 1 every day
• 1997 2002 specialist stores (butchers,
  fishmongers etc)
• 50 per week
• 2,000 in convenience sector last year
• 20 non-chain pubs per month
• 1992-2002 Britain lost one third of bank branch
  network
• Post office closures (anchors)
• 15 loss of turnover (local shops)
• Mock funeral - Stevenage

5
Agenda

• Introduction
• Clone Town Britain
• Recommendations

6
Clone Town Britain

• Homogenisation of high streets
• Dominance of brands
• Poor range of services
• Declining independent retail outlets
• We have replaced our busy streets with hermetic
  office blocks, gated shopping precincts and bland
  chain stores.
• Jonathan Glancey, architecture critic

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Clone Town Survey

• 130 towns
• Min popn 5,000 (max 150,000)
• Geographic diversity north and south
• High street survey
• 25 categories of shops
• Average 16 present
• Locally based surveyors

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Clone Town Results

• 41 clone towns
• Exeter, St Helens
• 26 border towns
• Pontefract, Castleford
• 33 home towns
• Congleton, Hebden Bridge, Alsager

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Why Does It Matter?

• Lose money from local area
• Money leakage
• Increases fragility of economy
• Reduces economic resilience
• Reduces diversity
• Undermines choice
• Social capital
• Limits social interaction
• Reduction in community spirit and engagement
• Damages sense of place

10
Leaky Buckets

• Money flows out of communities leakage
• Assess where money is spent and develop retention
  strategies
• Local Multiplier 3 (LM3)
• 3 rounds of spending
• Local enterprises help money stick
• Examine supply chains
• Look at involvement of local firms
• Integrate local firms in supply chains

11
Tesco Creating Clones

• Over 30 market share
• Largest mkt share in 67 of 120 postal districts
  (CACI) 2005.
• Oct 2006 81post codes
• Land bank 5 bn 185 sites, 4.5m sq ft
• Bicester 5 Tescos (little else)
• Harrogate - only place in England without a Tesco
• Beverley magnet claim
• Local retailers closing

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Tesco Creating Clones

• Net job losses
• UK small grocery
• 21bn and over 500,000 jobs
• Tesco
• 29bn and 250,000 jobs

Tesco has hit the town really badly. My turnover
went down 50 the day it opened. The local Co-op
is now a funeral parlour, the bakers has become
a Chinese takeaway and the butcher has had to go
into wholesaling.
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Markets

• Issues to think about
• Street markets and farmers markets
• Sense of place - Market Towns get their name from
  markets !
• Buzz, Destination
• Regenerates declining shopping areas
• Low barriers to entry

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Markets

• Promote independent small businesses
• Food access
• Complement local retail
• Positive impacts on turnover (3.6m in Lewisham)
• Low prices 50 cheaper

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Markets

• Planning Policy Statement 6, Planning for
  Town Centres, March 2005
• Street and covered markets (including
  farmers markets) can make a valuable
  contribution to local choice and diversity in
  shopping as well as the vitality of town centres
  . As an integral part of the vision for their
  town centres, local authorities should seek to
  retain and enhance existing markets and where
  appropriate, re-introduce or create new ones.
  Local authorities should ensure that their
  markets remain attractive and competitive by
  investing in their improvement.

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Agenda

• Introduction Ghost Towns
• Clone Town Britain
• Policy Prescriptions

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Policy Prescriptions for The Nations Identity
Crisis

• Planning
• Stop upward only rents
• Supermarkets
• Confidential complaints
• Break-up Tesco (8 share)
• Distinctiveness campaigns Keep Austin Weird
• Encourage local procurement
• Stop changes to Sunday Trading

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Policy Prescriptions for The Nations Identity
Crisis

• Economic and community impact reviews
• Local Multiplier studies

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Conclusions

• Clone Towns increasing
• Tipping points
• Action possible and practical
• National government competition policy
• Local authorities - planning
• Communities
• Retail diversity a key for communities
• Distinctiveness and economic success

20
Contacts

• Guy.Rubin_at_neweconomics.org
• Website www.neweconomics.org