Stephen Drill: Overdevelopment risks UK and Australia’s economic recovery
COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the retail sector, but an up-market UK club might just have the solution to get foot traffic moving again, writes Stephen Drill.
Opinion
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Selfridges has said no to the strippers that want to put up their shingle within eyeline of the posh London department store.
The Oxford Street landmark has opposed a planning move for a lap dancing club that wants to move near where the store plans to put a toy shop and cinema to make it more family orientated.
The owners of the Mayfair Club want to set up shop in the premises above a restaurant in Duke Street, the side street to Selfridges, because their lease ran out at their previous venue.
They say that they were only open from 9pm to 6am and only offer “full nudity” three times a week.
I’m not sure what they will do on the other days, but it’s one of many battles that businesses in the UK will face as they try to get out of lockdown without losing their shirts.
A London council will decide who wins that fight, but a bigger question remains about what will happen with the rest of the UK’s economy, which plunged 20.4 per cent this year.
I read the front pages in Australia this week which revealed it was in its first recession in 30 years with a 7 per cent plunge, which was the worst since records were kept.
I’ve lived in the UK twice now, and this is the second recession I’ve been through, moving just after the Global Financial Crisis in 2008.
It’s highlighted to me how much of a Lucky Country Australia is, and how strong its economy and standard of living have been during my lifetime.
I was on a job in Yorkshire earlier this week and stayed in Leeds and I noticed how the skyline there had changed, with new buildings dotted among the old architecture.
The same thing stuck out when I was in Manchester recently where I counted 14 cranes from the window of my hotel room.
The development was so stark that the BBC had commissioned a TV series called Manctopia, where locals complained about the new buildings, some of which were built on former council housing.
The big problem facing the UK, and Australia, is what is going to happen to all that building and investment now that we live in a completely different world.
Are the new office blocks ever going to have staff in them? Will the cafe built in the ground floor of the new buildings have enough traffic to open?
The streets near me started to feel busier last weekend, particularly as children come back to school next week.
The Government has given people half price meals on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for the past month, with spending jumping by a third on those days.
They will need all the gimmicks they can to get people back to their “normal” as the UK tries to cope with coronavirus and keep people in jobs the same time.
stephen.drill@news.co.uk