There doesn't seem to be a week that goes by when we don't hear some more bad news about the High Street. The sad erosion of retail outlets closing down is ripping the beating heart out of our towns and cities just seems relentless. For quite some time now we have seen the small independent shops slowly disappearing and the units remaining empty or only replaced by one of the many charity shops that are now commonplace in our town centres.

However, recently things are starting to get much more serious with some of the big retailers struggling to make a profit. In the last few weeks we have had an announcement from House of Fraser that they are intending to close more than half of their 59 stores. After failing to find a buyer the administrators were brought in but fortunately on the very same day Mike Ashley of Sports Direct fame and also a share holder of House of Fraser, agreed to buy it for £90 million. Fantastic news I think you'll all agree and he has vowed to make it the ‘The Harrods of the High Street’. I truly wish him the best of luck but I fear he does have an uphill struggle on his hands. 

Another big player to announce closures is Marks and Spencer. This fixture of the High Street has announced the closure of 100 stores by 2022 as part of a restructuring excerise in order to be more competitive in an already very saturated market sector. The plan is to have larger and strategically better placed stores and to focus on gaining more sales online where they hope to make a third of their sales. Getting online was an area that House of Fraser were very late to exploit and one of the main reasons of their downfall. Even Debenham's are flagging profit warnings and may soon need to make some closures. Desperate times call for desperate measures and for the last few years Debenham's having been trying to pull it back by having sales almost on a weekly basis. This strategy may have worked initially but I think it has got to a point now where it is now weakening the brand and people will just wait for the next sale to make their purchase. 

Now you may think that being the owner of an online business, this is all music to my ears. After all, all of the above mentioned sell handbags. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Okay, they may be competitors but I really value the quality of life we have in this country, so losing the heart and soul of our towns and cities would be a real hammer blow to our way of life. The trouble is, this demise is self perpetuating. Once some of the major outlets have gone, the footfall will dwindle, causing more closures and making it less likely of new outlets opening. 

The footfall has actually dropped 0.9% from this time last year so how can this trend be stopped? Well a lot of city centres are evolving with more bars, coffee shops and restaurants to create more of a café culture. This is great because it gives people a reason to visit the city centre, but it's not enough. The greatest unstoppable force against the High Street is obviously the internet and the massive players like Amazon who now account for £4 in every £100 spent on retail in this country. This has created a very uneven playing field because as we all know they have very little to pay in overheads relatively speaking and pay little in the way of tax, in fact only paying £15 million on European revenues of 19.5 billion. In order to even thing up a bit, I think the local councils should be less short sighted about the issue and start to offer business rate cuts and provide free parking. This would also incentivise people who would normally visit retail parks to perhaps venture into the city again. If this idea were to work it would generate more growth, thus increasing business rate revenues in the future. 

Obviously the High Street can't compete with the convenience of shopping online so I think their strength needs to lie in creating more of a retail experience. The last time I was in Marks and Spencer's I thought how bland it looked, almost a little depressing. I think they need to create more of a mood and create more interest. Maybe split the shop up a bit more to create more intimate areas with Tony Bennett on the piano, well maybe not the real Tony Bennett. Well we're at it, maybe Boots could have classes on health and beauty, John Lewis could host a cooking show on the weekend when they're not doing interior design demonstrations and Next could do a regular fashion show. Well, you get the idea!

To survive they will have to raise their game and think differently about how they sell.