Mary Portas has been asked by the government to conduct a review into the state of our local high streets.
The aim of the review is to halt the decline in our local shopping streets, address the problem of so many empty shops, prevent the growth of clone towns dominated by the same chains, boost the number of small and independent retailers in town centres and promote the development of more prosperous and diverse high streets.
High street shops are suffering from a combination of the recession and the growth in online shopping.
Mary Portas is “calling on businesses, local authorities and shoppers to contribute their ideas on how we can halt this decline.” You can contribute too through her website.
She will report back her results to the government in the autumn.
Mary Portas was the outspoken star of the BBC 2 series “Mary Queen of Shops” where she used her extensive retail and branding experience to turn around underperforming independent high street retailers.