00:00Hello, my name is Ian Griffin, Deputy Editor of Midlands Business Insider, and I've just hosted
00:14a fantastic lunch event looking at revitalising the high street. We looked at a range of issues
00:22and themes. We looked at how to attract the right funding, how to attract the right mix
00:28on the high street, how to attract the right people. We also looked at tackling antisocial
00:33behaviour and how you dealt with the car. Now let's hear what some of the speakers had to say.
00:41Councillor Adrian Andrew, I'm Deputy Leader of Walsall Council. I've been delighted to be a speaker
00:45today at the Insider event here in Walsall, talking about how we revitalise our high streets,
00:52not just in Walsall but across the region. We're really trying hard in Walsall Town Centre and
00:57across the borough to bring new things into our town centres in order to provide that footfall
01:03and those opportunities and the business opportunities for local people. So in Walsall retail will shrink,
01:10it has shrunk over the years but what we want to do is to bring new leisure, new education and new
01:17opportunities into Walsall and make sure that our town centre is accessible to everyone who wants to
01:24use it to to have a good time. Hi, so I am Serb Corr from Together, a crop of sales looking after the
01:32West Midlands. Had a fabulous day today working with the Insider on a panel interview on reviving the
01:42high street. Really, really important discussion and I'm really happy to be part of it. In terms of
01:48together, we offer speed, flexibility and getting the job done for retailers, for the high street and I think that's
02:00absolutely key now where they're at this pinnacle stage where they're repurposing vacant sites, a property
02:10that needs to be re-established, utilised and, you know, we're here for it. This is exactly the type of thing that we want to be helping with, you know, especially for community benefit.
02:24Hi, I'm Jeff Moody, Chief Commercial Officer of BIRA, British Independent Retailers Association. We look after all different types of
02:33retailers on the high street. I was invited today to talk about not just saving, but the rebirth and the importance of the high street.
02:42I enjoyed the presentation and my discussion, but I really learned a lot of new things about not just what retail was on the high street,
02:51but what the high street really meant in a more generic and a mixed usage. It's really interesting to see that what came over was much about safety and
03:00cleanliness to attract people back. So it's not just the individual retail or leisure or hospitality offering, but people want to feel safe on the high streets.
03:09People want to feel that they're in a comfortable and good surroundings and it was really interesting to hear property developers and
03:16counsellors and retailers like myself talking about how really it's important to get that community feel.
03:24And we've all got plans of what we want the high street to be. But when you actually listen to consumers, it's very clear
03:31they want variety, they want safety and they want cleanliness. And I think if we deliver on those three things,
03:37then we can start to get clever about property development and individual offerings. But I learned a lot today, so I was really pleased with what I picked up.
03:46Thank you!
03:49Thank you for joining the audio and so on
03:52far, we might have a great evening.
03:54Now that's for the best.
03:55It happens!
03:56In a great way, we'll enjoy it.
03:58I plan to focus on this video.
03:59I plan to focus on that you, a lot of people are going to be in the next video,
04:02but I will say thank you.
04:04I plan to focus on it.
04:06I plan to focus on it.
04:08I plan to focus on
04:10to focus on it and start to focus on it and start to focus.
