Everyone knows in this town that our High Street is in a shameful, sorry state.
After ten years in control of the council, Labour have failed to deliver any kind of meaningful regeneration of our town centre and now blame the internet for it.
Blaming online shopping doesn’t explain away the fact that they have presided over multiple failed proposals for the High Street. On a level playing field, Slough has slipped over 100 places in the national destinations index, and according to research by our neighbouring Labour-led Reading council, is losing £200m of retail spending to other towns outside of the borough every year as a result, the equivalent of thousands of jobs.
The problem here isn't necessarily the proposals - it is the execution and political will. Clearly there is an issue with lack of leadership in the administration, and no matter how many proposals are brought forward, developers lose faith and confidence, and back out.
In our view, over the years the baton has been handed between too many people with a total lack of accountability. We would propose creating a specific cabinet member for town centre regeneration, whose sole purpose would be to focus on delivering that one narrow remit by pulling the various groups together required to land such scale of change.
We would also look to pull in retail sector and regeneration experts, and setup a ‘Town Centre Regeneration Advisory Board’ to get their advice and guidance to get it right. Retailers are still spending money when they have confidence – residents only need to drive 20 minutes to Bracknell to see the amount of money retailers have spent wanting to be at the new Lexicon development that the Conservative-led council there have overseen.
Given Slough is the youngest town in the country – we will campaign for Slough town centre to become the UK hub for digital leading-edge retailing. Instead of blaming the internet for Slough's woes, why not harness it? In the process, we will also be better placed to attract investment from firms that design and build those technologies, providing high skilled, high paid jobs for our young people, keeping more of our brightest children in the town rather than losing them in the ‘brain-drain’. And to support this, let’s make a university campus at the heart of the town really happen, rather than just talk about it, as Labour have for years.
However, this isn’t just about waiting for multi-million-pound investment. We support the creation of a fully-fledged market in the town centre, something we can get started on quickl,y to bring our town to life again. Slough is different from our neighbours – we are diverse and entrepreneurial, with one of the highest levels of new business creation anywhere in the UK. Let’s support local traders, and at the same time provide residents with something that they can be proud of in their own town.
Finally, the Government also launched its Future High Streets fund late last year, and we would support efforts to ensure Slough can take a share of the £675m available as part of this new Conservative policy to help High Streets transform. This would allow us to take some control of our High Street renewal, stimulating the change we need. And whilst we are at it, let’s change our approach to planning so we can take more of a windfall from developers to help fund improvements to our town, easing the burden from taxpayers.
Time and time again we have seen regeneration of our town centre fail – Labour have run out ideas, and think they will get a different result by just carrying on doing the same things. To make it really happen, we need new leadership, help from experts and fresh ideas that residents and businesses can be confident in now, not just for the long term. We believe our alternative proposals are what our town centre needs.
Lee Pettman – Chair, Slough Conservative Association & Candidate for Cippenham Green