NOTES FOR SORT IT MEETING; MONDAY 24TH SEPTEMBER 2012
Sort it began informally in February 2012, after a small group of people got together to discuss whether or not Thetford should apply to become a ‘Portas Pilot’. The Government came up with the pilots concepts in response to the Portas Review that was published on the 12th December 2011. The review contained 28 recommendations that in theory would help revitalise high streets and each pilot needed to ‘test’ at least one of the 28 recommendations.
The Sort It Facebook page was created as a quick and easy way to canvass the views of local residents and businesses so that this information could feed into the application itself. However, the membership of the Sort It Facebook page grew rapidly and within a very short period of time hundreds of people were engaging with the site and sharing ideas and views. Many views were incredibly positive and actually very thought provoking, other comments revealed how much work would needed to be done to engage many highly sceptical and apathetic sections of the wider community.
The bid was submitted at the end of March, and we were informed about a month later that we were unsuccessful. 371 bids in total were submitted and 12 were selected. During the initial bidding phase we met with Grant Shapps, the Minister responsible and presented our case. Our MP – Elizabeth Truss arranged the visit and accompanied us. After the initial application process we tweaked the bid slightly, and resubmitted in July, but again we were unsuccessful, with 450 bids being submitted the second time.
What was clear from the analysis of those areas that were successful was that it wasn’t our ideas or concepts that were wrong, many areas were proposing almost identical projects to ours. But the figures surrounding shop vacancy rates for other areas were much higher than ours, and frankly many of the areas were in far worst position than Thetford. There were also several ‘test’ areas, for example there was an inner London ‘Town’, a seaside Town, a rural Town and others. The ‘pilot’ aspect clearly was key and the Government wanted to see if the pilots worked and therefore whether they could be rolled out elsewhere. Many bids were also far more aggressively led by their local Council or established Town Centre teams and probably included a much higher level of match funding than our bid. Our bid started from scratch, and had limited match funding available and less ‘buy in’ from local retailers than some other areas.
Despite the disappointment of the application being unsuccessful, it was of course not entirely surprising. What has genuinely been a surprise is the level of engagement from the wider public with Sort It and the momentum that it has generated.
We can obtain the aims and objectives of Sort It without a large flood of funding, the Portas money would have served as a catalyst and everything would have happened very quickly, but even without that money progress can be made, and indeed it is already being made.
Sort’ED – What became clear very quickly was that there were quite a number of people who were interested in trading locally, whether it be from a market stall or from a shop unit. Many lacked the initial capital to get their business off the ground and were unaware about what support services did exist. Whilst others had jitters about rental prices or business rates. There was a lot of confusion and misinformation out there, and the Sort It Facebook page gradually addressed this. We were fortunate that so many members of the Sort It Team were avid Facebook users so could address the points that were raised quickly and with factual information although inevitably some people doubted what was being presented to them. There were people many that had a good idea, but lacked the skills to take their concept to the next step. Sort’Ed aims to address that. It is basically the educational part of Sort It. The idea would be to provide training for people wanting to establish a new business or provide an opportunity for existing businesses to improve up on skills. For example, skills around customer service. This is not a new concept, but support of this nature is somewhat lacking locally at the current time. Dartford, who were successful with their bid, focused on a ‘school for shopkeepers’ concept where experts from nearby Bluewater would assist traders in Dartford with merchandising tips for example. This tied in nicely with the Portas concept that high streets need to be experts in their field to compete with supermarkets who were more focused in stacking things high, and selling them cheap, with little product knowledge. High streets need to be able to provide a more quality shopping experience. There is room for improvement in this regard in Thetford.
Importantly, the Sort’Ed aspect also offers practical support through the Night Markets concept, allowing traders to test their idea, and build a customer base before committing further. Additional practical support opportunities can be developed over time, but may include for example the sharing of equipment – Town Council purchased gazebos being a good practical example of support.
The Sort It Pledge – this is co-ordinated by Sort It, but the success of the idea is very much dependent on the established business community. By committing to the Pledge, businesses agree to help other businesses, or new businesses with guidance or expertise that they have. This came about through the Facebook page where people were saying that they would like to start a business, but wasn’t sure on a particular aspect. Suddenly there was a whole variety of people with a mix of skills offering to help. Sort It’s role would have a match-making role, linking businesses that are prepared to help with people in search of guidance and mentoring.
The Sort It Challenge – again, this is something that initiated through the Facebook group. A number of members commented that they would like to support the high street shops more, but could not afford to. On a number of occasions other members would post examples of high street prices, versus supermarket prices. Members branded this themselves, and called it the Sort It Challenge. Soon people were undertaking a whole shop in the high street and sharing their surprise at the availability of goods, plus the quality and price in many examples.
Marketing & Communications – this is clearly an important aspect of Sort It and an area where progress has been made. As well as encouraging new business it is important that we embrace and support what businesses already exist. Many have limited or no advertising budgets and cannot compete with the glossy promos coming from the supermarkets. Things need to be done differently, embracing the usage of the internet and social media and clubbing together to achieve economies of scale. This is where Sort It can really assist.
Share scheme – this is perhaps one of the more quirky ideas and certainly one that has grabbed people’s attention. You don’t need to look too far along Thetford’s high street until you find a shop unit that is owned by a company based overseas or owned by a private investor. This is common across many high streets, and there is nothing wrong with this. However, in some examples landlords do little to invest in the town, but take the rental income away. Some units have sat empty for some time and it would that the units have not been proactively marketed, think Riverside Walk, or the former Aunty Pams Sweet Shop. The Sort It scheme would enable local residents to buy shares of £25 each, up to a maximum of £1,000, if enough people commit to the scheme the freehold of certain properties could then be purchased. The concept needs careful consideration, as you would be dealing with people’s personal finances, but there are many examples around the country where this has worked successfully, often through what’s known as an Industrial and Provident Society’s. See Plunkett Foundation website for more info. Shareholders would get an annual return on their investment, assuming a profit is made, and anything over and above that could be reinvested back into Sort It to help it achieve its aims and objectives.
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