Shop Rents in Crouch End - One Show coverage

[Adrian Essex]

Did you catch this piece on shop rents on the One Show this week . Shocking.

 Thanks to all these good folk from Twitter

MichaelH14Jan 23, 11:55pm via Twitter for iPad

@GiuliaFlorimo @N8CrouchEnd @OpinionN8 I was wondering if they were corporate owners or small landlords - probably the former

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GiuliaFlorimo: @N8CrouchEnd @OpinionN8 Crouch End on the One Show BBC about ridiculous rent increase for indy shops! #haringey7:43pm, Jan 23 from Twitter for Android

MichaelH14: @GiuliaFlorimo @n8crouchend@opinionn8 who are the owners btw ?11:18pm, Jan 23 from Twitter for iPad

GiuliaFlorimo: @MichaelH14 @N8CrouchEnd@OpinionN8 owners not mentioned!11:52pm, Jan 23 from Twitter for Android

MichaelH14: @GiuliaFlorimo @n8crouchend@opinionn8 I was wondering if they were corporate owners or small landlords - probably the former11:55pm, Jan 23 from Twitter for iPad

[Betty M]

The Crouch End bit starts at 39.08 if you can't bear the rest of the One Show.

I saw that Two Wheels Good is going too presumably a victim of rents and Evans.

[Charles Wright]

And online sales I think as far as Two Wheels Good goes.

But I thought the big problem was the council's parking charges according to councillors?

[Adrian Essex]

According to this Haringey survey of travel habit part of this Haringey campaign for Smarter Travel if you double the number of motorists in a shopping centre you make damn all difference to 'footfall', well 8%. Do shop keepers believe that motorists spend a lot more money than cyclists? Or maybe motorists set out specifically to do shopping and are therefore more likely to spend?

[Charles Wright]

Very interesting. A recent report for London Councils looks at this in detail

http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/news/current/pressdetail.htm?pk=1549

It reports studies from town centres showing that free parking made no difference to the bottom line, and suggests that shoppers coming on foot or by bus visit more frequently and spend more than those coming by car. And generally the range and quality of the shops and other facilities is more important than whether you can park or how much it costs.

But shopkeepers do consistently over-estimate how many of their customers come by car, and how much they spend.

The full report, accessible from the link, is well worth reading. 

[Adrian Essex]

This note appeared in the Ham and High:

Dear Sir

Last week's One Show (BBC, 24th January) item about meteoric rent increases really pulls the veil back on the immense daily challenges to survival faced by independent shopkeepers in our Town Centres.

When I became a Crouch End councillor a decade ago, the going rate for a prime spot in the Broadway was about £20k a year. A couple of years ago, a multinational mobile phone company signed a lease committing them to a rent of £80,000 per year or, as my old grocer dad would have said, £1 600 per week before you put the key in the door!

Traders also must find wages and National Insurance, energy costs, insurance, stock and a myriad of other odds and sods. On top of this, thoughtless councils continue to pile on the pressure by extracting exorbitant parking charges but at the same time claim they are the friend of small businesses.

Property owners (usually the banks and pension funds) must be made to realise that their greed risks killing off town centres and thus lose their investment. Why not declare a five-year rent freeze to allow retail to retrench?

But shoppers are not powerless.

A survey done a decade ago showed that £90 out of every £100 spend by Crouch Enders was not spent locally: the subsequent increase in internet retail means that this measly £10 has probably shrunk even more.

If, collectively, we decide to move a single pound of that £90 back to Crouch End we would be massively helping small shopkeepers and in effect increase their turnover by 10%.

Use 'em or lose 'em! It's up to us.


Cllr David Winskill

[OpinioN8 Administrator]

from facebook

Jacqueline Osley

Noticed today that The Red Shoes is closed - if a shop which caters for the high number of children in Crouch End can't survive, what hope is there for the rest? Weren't people 'shopping local'? I saw the owner on TV last week and she did say things weren't looking good because of the high rent. Yet another example of landlord greed. Very sad.

[Betty M]

No hope at all really. Red Shoes was always a bit of a Marmite shop with strong views both ways but I thought they had a great selection of shoes and I'm prepared to pay extra to avoid the hell of John Lewis shoe dept. so I'll be sorry if it has gone for good.

[Anna]

Well, not only the private landlords are greedy.. I am being forced out with my messy play sessions for kids out of Waterlow Park Centre in Highgate.The council venue increased hire rate by 600% and aims to attract the corporate clients only...