Ipswich: Not all doom and gloom for town centre shops

Retailers are struggling with the long-term trends of competition from out of town retail centres and internet shopping.

Many have barely recovered from Covid. Now they are being hit by massively increased energy costs and a likely reduction in spend as shoppers curb their spending due to the cost-of-living crisis.

National store chains that have been loaded up with debt in good times risk going into administration now bad times are here. This can lead to stores closing regardless of how well they are doing locally. We’ve seen this before with Woolworths, BHS and Debenhams. Joules is the latest chain to go into administration but there are hopeful signs that their shops may be saved.

David Ellesmere explains the work behind the scenes to bring business to Ipswich town centre

In Ipswich, we’re facing additional challenges from the takeover of the Novotel by the Home Office which will reduce footfall and spend in the town centre.

With all these problems it is tempting to think that everything is doom and gloom, and indeed it did seem that way when it was announced that Ipswich’s H&M was closing.

There was a general assumption that this was a decision taken by the chain because the Ipswich store wasn’t trading very well. This was reasonable because H&M is closing 170 stores across the country for just this reason.

However, that isn’t the case in Ipswich. H&M was trading well and wanted to stay in the town centre. It is leaving because it has been given notice by its landlord.

It is our understanding that H&M is now looking to try and identify a suitable vacant unit in the town centre so it can open a new store.

And the owner of its former shop is Fraser Group, which wanted H&M to vacate so it could open a completely new store there.

Undoubtedly, it would have been much better for the town centre if H&M could have been allowed to stay until after Christmas. But, if everything pans out, we will end up with two new stores and one less vacant building – a real win for the town.

There are still firms who want to invest in town centres in general and Ipswich in particular.

We’ve seen this with the commercial properties that Ipswich Borough Council owns in the town centre, either directly or through our property company.

We’ve been able to attract Deichmann to the former Burtons and Dorothy Perkins, the Botanist to the Old Post Office and Dough & Co to the former little Waitrose. We are negotiating with potential occupiers for the Customer Service Centre in the Town Hall and Ancient House.

We are also changing the use of other buildings to bring more people into the town centre. A part of the Town Hall is currently being converted to host registry office weddings and we have attracted external funding to turn St Stephen’s Church into a new live music venue.

The council’s property team is aware of other national operators which are still looking to open in Ipswich if they can get the right deal. However, because we’ve been so good at getting the council’s empty buildings back into use, we don’t have any vacant properties left we can offer. Other than the properties I’ve mentioned above, all the empty shops in the town centre are owned by private landlords and sometimes they struggle to put together deals that can attract new tenants.

That’s why a significant part of the Town Deal money the council successfully bid for is an £8m Regeneration Fund which is dedicated to bringing empty town centre buildings back into use. The intention is to buy or lease long-term vacant buildings, do them up and then either sell or rent them out, using the proceeds to create a revolving fund to bring more empty buildings back into use.

With this sort of investment, our track record shows we can attract new businesses to Ipswich.

So while things are undoubtedly tough right now, and realistically we may well see more closures in the coming months, there is still hope that, when the economy recovers, we will start to see the town centre begin to recover.