Dame Sharon White, the chair of Waitrose owner John Lewis Partnership, has said that UK high streets have become “looting grounds” for criminal gangs as she called on the government to review the current state of town centres.
In a letter to The Telegraph, White said that the surge in shoplifting and anti-social behaviour follows years of shop closures that have left town centres with boarded up stores and “seemingly endless” rows of charity shops and vape vendors.
White has called on ministers to set up a Royal Commission to review the health of towns and how to revitalise them.
Data from the British Retail Consortium shows that six thousand shops have closed down in the UK in the last five years.
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The John Lewis chair also hit out at “unfair” business rates, outdated planning rules and the “tourist tax”.
Meanwhile, she highlighted that changes like Sadiq Khan’s Ulez scheme in London needed to be implemented “in a way that doesn’t leave anyone behind”.
She concluded that high streets were at risk “becoming a looting ground for emboldened shoplifters and organised gangs” without a “comprehensive plan” to combat the rise of retail crime.
White has spoken out as John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose and John Lewis, is set to report another loss this week at its half-year results.
However, losses are expected to come in lower than the £99m shortfall posted a year previously, according to The Mail on Sunday.
