Great Eastern Street London from Shoreditch High Street

Representatives from businesses big and small will tomorrow appear before the London Assembly to discuss the issues facing retailers on local high streets in the capital.

With shop closures on already troubled high streets on the rise due to the recession, the Assembly’s Planning and Housing Committee is investigating what progress has been made on implementing planning policies to support small retailers.

There are almost 35,000 small retailers in London, between them providing more than 100,000 jobs. What does the future hold for these crucial elements of London’s economy?

Guests including Tesco and the Federation of Small Businesses will join representatives from two London boroughs to face questions including:

• - What are the benefits of, and the main threats to, small independent retailers?
• - Can chains and small shops co-exist in the same local shopping street?
• - Have shopping patterns changed so much that, inevitably, the days of the small shop are numbered?
• - Does the planning system do enough to help local councillors support small shops if they want to resist schemes for larger convenience stores?
• - What more could the Mayor do to support small shops through the London Plan?

Invited guests:

• - Nick Winch, London Policy Manager, Federation of Small Businesses
• - Emma Reynolds, Government Affairs Manager, Tesco
• - Councillor Tim Ahern, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• - Jo Hammond, Town Centre Initiatives Manager, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• - Stephanie Butcher, Brixton Town Centre Director, Brixton Town Centre Initiative

The Planning and Housing Committee meeting will take place at 10am on Tuesday, 10 November in Committee Room 5 at City Hall (The Queen’s Walk, London SE1).

Members of the public are invited to attend. The meeting can also be viewed via webcast at: http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/webcasts.jsp

The findings of the review will form the Assembly’s contribution to policy development as part of the London Plan review process from now until the Examination in Public in the summer of 2010. The Committee will publish a full report of its findings early next year.

Retailers can expect the worst of the recession to hit in 2010 with over 5,000 retailers in the UK predicted to go out of business. Source: Industry Watch report by BDO Stoy Hayward LLP(2009); http://www.bdo.uk.com/bdo-stoy-hayward/live/news/2009/over-5-000-retailers-to-go-out-of-business-next-year.html

A small retailer can be defined as one that employs up to ten people; another common definition is less than 3,000 square feet in size.

In London in 2007 there were 34,708 small retailers employing 102,905 people. Small retailers account for 87 per cent of all retailers in London. Source: Office of National Statistics (2007): Annual business inquiry