As core assets to their communities, convenience stores have an important role to play in the government’s levelling up plans, claimed speakers at the Association of Convenience Store’s (ACS’) Heart of Community conference yesterday.
Katy Balls, deputy political editor at The Spectator and keynote speaker, claimed that small businesses tend to be viewed by the government as “a force for good”. She observed that high streets had become a metric by which areas were judged. “It ties up with levelling up agenda … high streets are a sign of a healthy community,” she told attendees at yesterday’s event in Westminster. “Shops are quite important to the government’s plans, not just the economy, but also what they are trying to do in terms of political messages and the big agendas they have.”
Daniel Zeichner, shadow minister for the department for food, environment and rural affairs, championed local shops when he took to the floor. “We are very aware of the importance of convenience stores - not just as suppliers of essential goods, but as employers and also as community hubs,” he said, adding that costs to small businesses should be cut by raising the business rates relief threshold to £25,000.
“Shops are much more than places where you go to get goods,” he said.
“If there’s no shop, there’s no community.”
Panellist Mike Crowhurst, director of public policy research agency, Public First, explained that the government’s levelling up goal was to close disparities between different parts of the UK, but claimed that it needed to expand its focus beyond high streets in order to achieve this. “I think the government needs to realise that local parades and suburbs which don’t necessarily have high streets but have a local shop are just as important as the high streets and they need to be supported,” he said.
The latest ACS Community Barometer research concurred with this view. “This thinking that convenience stores are more than just high streets, more than just town centres … is resonating with local people,” said ACS communications director Chris Noice. “More than two thirds of people want to see investment in their local neighbourhood (68%) versus city centre (32%),” he said, adding that local investment was much more important to rural consumers (84%) than their urban counterparts (64%).
Noice pointed to a tweet from MP Neil O’Brien defining levelling up as the best example of what the term means.
Ian Diment, group HR & strategy director at AF Blakemore illustrated to delegates the numerous ways in which the company is contributing to levelling up across Central and South East England and Wales. These included: Blakemore Foundation charitable donations of over £350,000 to good causes; Kickstart placements creating opportunities for those at risk of long-term unemployment; Volunteering projects, such as litter picking; Spar’s Community Cashback scheme; and community regeneration. The group’s regeneration of Thurcroft in Rotherham involved a £1.8m commitment, which saw the development of a Spar with Subway, Greggs, a coffee shop and post office service and created additional jobs in the area.
Levelling up is “the creation of opportunity”, according to fellow panellist councillor Ankur Shiv Bhandari, mayor of Bracknell Forest, which has seen investment of over £770m, making it one of the largest urban regeneration schemes built in the UK. He advised retailers to get in touch with their local councillors to start making a difference.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “Local shops play a crucial role in the levelling up agenda, providing essential products and services to communities that in some cases would otherwise be without a local grocery offering at all. These are businesses that are embedded in their communities, as job creators, investors, social hubs and much more. When Government considers the best way to level up local communities, thriving convenience stores should be central to their plans.”
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