That's the spirit! (fixing the High Street)

Emailed in by Lola from Ipswich Star:

The Edinburgh Woollen Mill, in Buttermarket, Ipswich, looks set to be the latest national brand exiting the town.

Large signs have appeared in the store's windows which state: "This store is closing down - all stock must go". owever, the store's message is somewhat contradicted by a much smaller sign underneath which reads: "Subject to landlord negotiation". This is a tactic The Edinburgh Woollen Mill has employed before and used at dozens of stores across the country.

Earlier this year similar signs appeared in the windows of Peacocks fashion store, in Carr Street. But despite having the signs up for most of the year the store, which is owned by The Edinburgh Woollen Mill, still seems to be going strong.

It appears the signs are introduced as a result of annual negotiations of new leases in a bid to strike a better rent deal with landlords.

Retailers are gradually cottoning on to this tactic, in the medium term, it will work, hopefully.

LVT (as opposed to Business Rates) would give landlords the required kick up the arse and accelerate the process. LVT on any high street would be based on average rents being actually paid by normal tenant businesses. For charity shops (which are arbitraging the 80% Business Rates reduction for charities) and vacant premises, each landlord would be asked how much rent they are holding out for (assuming the premises were rented to a normal business) and would pay LVT based on that amount. If they pitch too high, they will be overpaying LVT; if they lowball, then the council can ensure that the premises are actually rented out for that amount and a local business gets its foot in the door.

The theoretical optimum rent (and hence optimum LVT receipts) on any high street is the highest figure that landlords can demand before shops start falling vacant, which leads to a downward spiral. In the real world, the optimum is "a bit less than that".

LVT will encourage landlords to find that optimum:
- LVT will tend to push rents down a bit. A rational landlord is indifferent between a) charging £40/sq ft rent and paying £30/sq ft LVT and b) charging £35/sq t rent and paying £25/sq ft LVT, either way, the landlord nets £10/sq ft.
- LVT will also push rents up a bit. If all other landlords are charging £35/sq ft, fixing the LVT on all shops at £25/sq ft, clearly a minority of landlords will go for £36 or £37, while still only paying the £25 LVT and thus netting £11 or £12.

But so what? If rents fall below that theoretical optimum, at least there will be shops and jobs in the area; the council's loss is local business' gain, and not local landlords' gain.

Presumably, there are some High Streets where the maximum rent that can be demanded is less than it costs to maintain the buildings, these areas are beyond the margin and are very difficult to revive. Reducing other taxes (in particular VAT) would revive at least some of them, which is all part of the plan (LVT could largely replace VAT).