It was somewhat ironic that on the same day that the Belfast Telegraph reported that one quarter of retail units were vacant in Belfast, the paper also reported Peter Robinson’s claim that planning delays such as for the development of the out of town multinational retailer John Lewis store are “costing millions in investment and jobs.”
Despite the blatently obvious connection between the development of out of town retail and the loss of our town centres, our politicians still havn't learnt to count and, when faced with the judgement of the merit of a proposed development, continue to simply add up all the positives and forget about any associated costs.
And the media does little to help. Despite the myths spread opening a second out of town supermarket in a town does not result in the creation of jobs - people don’t suddenly spend twice as much money or indeed suddenly demand twice as much food! Rather what happens is that jobs are displaced, as the locally run shops in the town centre which would serve local goods from other local businesses close.
The impacts of the loss of our small businesses cannot be underestimated. Compared to multinational retailers which pay the most basic wage to those at the bottom and extravagant wages to the very lucky few who manage to reach the top, small businesses provide people with a fair income and the self-determination and satisfaction of owning and managing their own family business. Small businesses buy more of their products from other local businesses which keeps the money in the local economy and they give a town centre character. They also provide a greater choice compared to the same goods which are sold at the same chain retailers nation wide. Moreover, the dispersal of retail to out of town locations makes it even more difficult to develop a public transport infrastructure resulting in greater levels of car dependency which hits the poorest in society the hardest. And lets not forget, when a town loses a business which has been run by a family for generations, it can never be replaced.
Unfortunately, rather than their being not enough retail development in this country, the total failure by the Government to consider the wider social, economic and long term costs of new retail development has resulted in a failure to administer any sort of development plan resulting in a free for all for the last two decades. This is no more visible than in East Belfast where an entire road of small businesses on the Lower Newtownards Road has all but been wiped out as a result of the continued expansion of multinational chain shops in Conswater Shopping Centre. Ironically today Conswater itself is now struggling as a result of overexpansion and now its anchor tenant Tesco is planning to up sticks and relocate to the Castlereagh Road with the likely impact that the many small businesses on the Cregagh Road will suffer a similar fate.
While no one disputes that the building of a new supermarket or retail complex results in an initial injection of new money during the construction phase, no multinational company ever makes an investment without the expectation of a return. Lets not forget that once built the profits of multinational retailers are sucked out of the local economy and sent to the headquarters in London. As such, if Peter Robinson and the Government are actually serious about their proposals to make Northern Ireland less financially dependent on the rest of the UK, one of the best things they could do would be to devise a strategy to keep money circulating in the local economy and deter rather than encourage the development of multinational retailers.
Our concern about these issues has meant that Green Party in the Assembly has submitted motion calling for an urgent publication of a NI retail planning policy for debate to the Assembly and we hope that other parties will recognise these concerns and endorse the Green Party’s call on this issue.
Ross Brown
Chairperson of the East Belfast Green Party
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