By Victoria Weldon

Politicians should let high street shops die and focus on building new homes in their place, according to a think-tank.

A report from Social Market Foundation (SMF) suggests retail units left empty by the collapse of the business should be converted into hundreds of thousands of new homes built by the public sector.

SMF argues that the decline of traditional high street shopping is inevitable and ministers should focus less on trying to slow its demise.

The Scottish Retail Consortium argue that retail still has a role to play in the country’s high streets, however SMF claims local and national governments should deploy radical new measures to help save town centres.

SMF’s research director Scott Corfe said: “Politicians pledging to save the high street are promising voters the impossible.

“Instead of claiming they can turn back the clock, leaders should aim to make inevitable change work better for urban centres and populations.

“Trying to prop up high street retailers facing long-term decline is not an act of kindness to workers or towns. It just postpones the inevitable and wastes opportunities to develop new policies to help workers and towns embrace the future.

“Nothing can stop the demise of traditional high street shopping so it would be better for politicians to support the next chapter in the story of the high street, with hundreds of thousands of new homes that bring new life to our urban centres.”

The report, A New Life for the High Street, argues that the coronavirus crisis will accelerate the shift away from shopping in urban centres.

As more and more workers spend at least some of their working week working at home, footfall in town centres will decline and more retailers will collapse.

To save high streets, the publication recommends a nationwide program of repurposing city and town centres.

This would involve vacant retail space being converted into residential property, allowing for the creation of 800,000 new homes.

Many of those homes should be built by local councils and other public bodies in a major expansion of social housing, the paper says.

It also recommends that central government should write off tens of billions of pounds of local councils’ debt to support that programme.

This would essentially transfer local government debt into the hands of central government, which the SMF believes is better-placed to service the debt.

A debt write-off would liberate local authorities to invest in urban renewal projects – including the creation of new schools, parks, and sports facilities.

Areas at risk of urban decline due to loss of retail and office space should also be designated as Economic Growth Areas, according to the report.

Modelled on France’s Zones Franches Urbaines, the EGAs would offer tax incentives for firms moving into these areas, with the incentives contingent on the hiring of local workers – particularly those that have lost work as a result of economic change accelerated by the coronavirus crisis.

David Lonsdale, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, admitted that Scotland’s high streets and town centres have been “left reeling” by coronavirus.

“Many shops have been shuttered for months and unfortunately some are unlikely to survive,” he said.

“This will have consequences for gap-toothed high streets, shopper choice, retail employment, and local tax revenues.

“Retail still has a role to play in our high streets, however it will be less than it was previously.

“We certainly agree that more housing and community facilities can play a role in helping to revitalise our high streets. However it will be crucial to protect the economic vitality of our town centres, and the economic eco-system that retail and hospitality and other firms find mutually reinforcing.

“There needs to be a more compelling reason for people to visit, spend time and money on our high streets, but we must also recognise that incoherent public policy has exacerbated the situation.”

Mr Lonsdale claimed that prior to the covid-19 crisis, business rates were at a 21-year high, making it more expensive to operate on the high street.

He added that “costly and restricting” parking also deterred shoppers, making trading conditions more difficult.

The Herald has previously reported on how some local authorities are already considering doing what the report suggests.

Earlier this year, Des Murray, the chief executive of North Lanarkshire Council, outlined plans to replace retail outlets with homes and “town hubs” - complexes which will incorporate multi-school campuses and other public services.

Speaking about his hometown of Airdrie, Mr Murray said: “This is not the high street I grew up on. That was vibrant and full of people and shops. It has changed beyond all recognition.

“So what do we do? Do we step away from it and let it lowly decline. Or do we step in to that space and do something fundamental to change it?”