Government
In the last year an estimated 50,000 retail jobs have gone. Major stores have closed while others such as House of Fraser and Marks & Spencer are slashing branches.Unless the decline can be reversed there are fears our high streets could become ghost towns of boarded up shops and derelict malls.In this week’s Ayes to the Left podcast we discuss why our town centres are fighting for their lives and what can be done to save them.Mirror’s business editor Graham Hiscott and reporter Oliver Milne talk to Jason Beattie about the threat posed by the online giants, the hollowing out of our public spaces and the need to reform business rates.But it is not all doom and gloom. Oliver tells how a small Belgium town has been transformed by an innovative mayor who has encouraged pop up shops, brought families back to the centre and used art to brighten the landscape.The high street can be saved. It just needs government help and a bit of enterprise and imagination.