Comment: Complacency breeds high street failures

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Andy Grove, one of the men behind Intel, once said: “Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.”

In recent years those in power seem to have viewed problems on the high street as a priority that can be allowed to slip down the national to-do list. Something to be solved by long-awaited reports and the odd committee.

Government disregard for the retail sector is now endemic. From Vince Cable’s crisis denials to ludicrous delays in property revaluations, the belief seems to be that whatever is thrown at us, we’ll cope.

This was demonstrated at a meeting I attended recently between the leaders of Oxford City and County Councils and local businesspeople, during which assurances were given that the impact of stratospheric parking charges in the city was finally being taken on board and reductions were to be implemented in the summer.

Maybe it was the free flowing wine during the meeting that inspired them to show their caring side, or those little cocktail sausages that they wolfed down with such alacrity.

Whatever it was, it appears that once they’d cleared their heads of such foolish indulgences, both council leaders decided they’d best get back to the business in hand of dumping on local enterprise from the lofty heights of public office.

So it was that, less than three weeks later, in a move of breathtaking cynicism, plans for yet more increases to
parking charges were being reported in the local press.

Perhaps this complacency is born from our own apparent success, and statistical blips such as the upbeat February sales figures will likely do little to inject urgency into government policy.

But with local elections looming, politicians would do well to consider how their indifference might look to voters witnessing the demise of their once beloved high streets.

Even if they don’t feel they should lend support to retailers, a little paranoia about how the shutters could just as easily be brought down on their own aspirations might be a valuable and informative experience for some of them right about now.