South Shields has so much potential yet investment is limited - Emma Lewell-Buck

The trend we have seen on King Street is no different to that seen in many coastal communities across the country. There are now 50,000 fewer shops on our high streets than over a decade ago and just last year the Local Data Company found that across our high streets 29,000 retail units had been left vacant for over a year. Closures on the high street are at a historic peak with analysts predicting things are likely to continue on this trajectory. Over the last decade the Tories have failed to grasp that our town centres and high streets don’t exist in a vacuum. For them to really thrive we need good transport infrastructure so people can access the high street and an end to low paid, insecure work.

They have also failed to take action against faceless distant landlords who own shops in town centres such as ours and are not interested in developing the local economy, they have also despite repeated promises as promising again in the recent Queens Speech to fundamentally review business rates, rates that are raised with me time and time again as being a large factor in why some retailers have had to close down, when Amazon pays £40 million less in business rates than Next it is clear that this fundamental review is long overdue. There also needs to be some recognition that how people use town centres has changed, for the high streets that thrive they have developed plans with and for their local communities, these areas have become more of a community hub, a place to celebrate their areas individuality and where people can come together.

High streets are becoming less about buying things and more about an experience. Here in South Shields we have an abundance of local talent and creative people, who could change the look and feel King Street, offering something unique and local alongside the more traditional shops you see on every high street up and down the country. Just look at the number of local stalls at the Christmas fairs, food festival and the amazing Christmas Market arranged in December by Carol Gibson, Josh Trueman and David Amess. I have written before about how innovative Preston Council has been in encouraging local procurement by the city's big institutions (such as the police and university) and developing worker owned cooperatives, in 2018 Demos’s Good Growth for Cities Index named Preston as the most improved city in the country and it was ranked as a better place to live than London.

Out-with of Government changes the time is urgent to embrace South Shields’ individuality, rich history and capitalise on our coastline. Regeneration plans made years ago may no longer fit for the changing needs of local populations and their vision of a modern high street or town centre. Our town has so much potential and as always it is the great people of our town full of passion and ideas who should, and I hope will have a lead role in reviving our centre.