“In and around the city centre, there are a lot of retail warehouse parks,” says Jonathan De Mello, the founder of JDM Retail Consulting. “You can’t change that now that they’re there.”
For retailers, it is easy to see why they might prefer retail parks. The spaces are regular and do not need much spending on refitting. Retail bosses argue that shoppers often prefer visiting the parks as they can avoid city centre parking fees.
Marks & Spencer has been among those making a major push into these out-of-town areas, although it argues it will never “leave city centres”. In Coventry, retailers including Next and Currys have stores in out-of-town parks but not in the city centre.
There are other geographical issues that put Coventry at a particular disadvantage. Since it was rebuilt after the Second World War, Coventry has had to compete with nearby towns and cities including Birmingham and Solihull, where councils have spent heavily to attract big stores such as John Lewis.
Andrew Goodacre, who heads up the British Independent Retailers Association, lives near to Coventry and says other cities hold bigger draws.
“It’s got that big brother of Birmingham nearby which people can easily get to on the train. They think, ‘If I’m going out, I’ll be able to go to Birmingham.’ It’s got the indoor market, it’s got a busy high street, there’s a German market at Christmas. I’d rather go there than Coventry.”
It appears a stretch for the Government to try to convince shoppers otherwise. Still, Goodacre says, “Coventry has a very rich history that it could work with and build on”.