Save our city centres!
Campaign to cut costs as more and more shops lie
empty
Shop owners have started a new campaign to try to save their
businesses.
High street stores across Scotland are battling to survive as
customer numbers drop. So dozens of companies are taking councils
to court to try to bring down their bills. The list includes the
Body Shop, Superdrug, Greaves Sports, Phones 4u, Thorntons and
Lush.
The shop owners are campaigning to lower the amount they have to
pay to councils in charges known as business rates. These are taxes
that businesses pay to fund things like street lighting, bin
collections and road cleaning.
The amount shops pay depends on their size and varies between
around £300 and £1,500 a month. Bills were calculated back in 2008,
before the credit-crunch and the recession hit.
At least one shop had to close every day in Scotland last year
because of the recession. Shoppers are cutting back on their
spending as they struggle to cope with high food and fuel prices
and rising housing costs.
Nearly 15% of all town centre shop units are lying empty as
sales and profits fall.
Sarah Cordey, a retail expert, said: "If property costs become
too steep, the sad likelihood is that more shops will close, which
drags down an entire area and makes it harder for businesses of all
kinds to thrive."
Shop owners say it is not fair that they have to pay the same
rates as in 2008, when their sales and profits were a lot
higher.
If the businesses win the battle to reduce their bills, the
government will be left with less money to spend on things like
schools, hospitals and libraries. But if the shops are forced to
close down, the government won't get any money from them at
all.
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Save our city centres!
Case study: Saltcoats, North Ayrshire
As shops across Scotland battle to survive the recession, we
take a look at the situation in one Scottish town, Saltcoats in
North Ayrshire.
This report was written for the Daily What News by
Luisa Rourke, aged 10, from St Anthony's Primary
School in Saltcoats.
Saltcoats has a population of around 11,000 people. During the
first half of the 20th century the town was a popular holiday
destination.
Sadly, Saltcoats has become a ghost town. Well near enough
anyway. A walk through the main shopping area reveals a sad story.
Many shop units are empty afer the owners struggled to beat the
recession and those that have survived are struggling as it is.
Some of the shops that are left are taking advantage of larger
units becoming vacant. Take Farmfoods for example - Woolworths shut
down and they jumped at the chance to move into a bigger shop.
In the past year the DVD rental shop, two estate agents, three
pubs, the famous Metropolis nightclub AND the Town Hall has shut
down. Even the Apollo Cinema and its theme park has shut down! Now
it's a sad state of affairs when the cinema shuts down, isn't
it?
I asked around to find the locals' point of veiw on the state of
the town. Here is what some people think:
Susan, 29: "Saltcoats has changed beyond recognition. Within a
few short years the town has lost its way. We used to have lots of
shops and leisure facilities in the town. Now we have a town full
of pound shops and charity shops, with a couple of clothes shops.
The number of empty shops is unbeliveable!"
Kevin, 32: "We need to make more buisnesses invest in Saltcoats
rather than Ardrossan."
Hannah, 29: "There is nothing for families, no jobs and no
industries."
I think that although I have only been alive for ten years, it's
long enough to know that the town has changed a lot.
The council need to find a way to attract buisnesses instead of
repelling them. They could do this by creating more tourist
attractions so that smaller shops such as souvenir shops could sell
their wares.
Still, the council IS trying to put a dirt track for bike-riding
somewhere in the town. So is improvement on its way?
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