Watford road crying out for new businesses

5:00pm Sunday 10th February 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Adam Binnie, Senior Reporter

Queens Road is calling out for new “niche” businesses, according to a group of local residents, politicians and shop owners.

At a meeting on Thursday, ideas for the future of Queens Road were discussed.

Mike Hewitt, co-chairman of the Queens Road Traders Association, said the road needed more services, such as doctors and opticians, and “niche cafes”.

He said: “A shop will cost you £60,000 a year before you pay any staff or buy any stock to sell. Retail is finished, there are not enough houses to look after local shops.

“Queens Road needs niche places for people to go out and eat, we are near a road full of places like KPMG but we can’t attract those people.

“We need to find people with ideas who are ready to put money behind those ideas. I would run a business plan for a coffee shop or specialist shop opening in Queens Road.

“People will walk 30 metres and if they haven’t found anything interesting they will turn around. We need a shop to anchor one end of the road, and a bank, doctors’ surgery or opticians, then we’d be laughing.”

MP for Watford Richard Harrington also attended the meeting and said business owners were under increasing pressure from sky-high rents and rates bills.

He said: “The business rates system is outrageous, rents have come down but the rates haven’t. The pressure on public expenditure is such that business rates are a very important revenue sector.

“There are fundamentally too many shops, even if the rent and rates were lower. There will be half as many shops in this country in ten years time.”

Comments(11)

Mohandas says...
5:24pm Sun 10 Feb 13

Mike Hewitt, co-chairman of the Queens Road Traders Association, said: “A shop will cost you £60,000 a year before you pay any staff or buy any stock to sell'.
Landlords / developers with their high rents have been one of the major obstacles to holding back business / employment by keeping premises empty and our high streets run down. It's time that some real penalties were imposed as with council tax changes in housing to force the rents down.

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PhilCox says...
6:03pm Sun 10 Feb 13

Business rates and rents should both be much lower. Unfortunately people are greedy and so neither is likely to happen.

60k is one hell of a gamble on opening a shop somewhere like Queens Road, particularly with the reported anti-social problems in the road.

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The Rover says...
6:31pm Sun 10 Feb 13

There are already lots of restaurants and coffee shops in Watford. I cannot see anyone going out of their way to go to a coffee shop in the middle of a semi-derelict street, when there are plenty of other choices in the high street and the harlequin. Since the harlequin opened in Watford it has killed the High Street and Queens Road, and Watford has lost a lot of its character.

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Paul Gadd says...
6:36pm Sun 10 Feb 13

The greed of the Council and Landlords is killing the road- along with the fact you can't park for more than 30 secs to nip into any shop without a parking inspector leaping out from nowhere to get you.

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John Dowdle says...
2:17am Mon 11 Feb 13

There are now free 20 minute car parking bays in Queens Road (The Broadway) which have been installed in order to attract customers to the businesses in the area. I am not sure Richard Harrington is being altogether economical with the truth? My understanding these days is that it is central government that sets business rate levels so if they are a problem then he should be talking to central government about reducing them. Or have I got that wrong?

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TRT says...
10:38am Mon 11 Feb 13

I remember the day when every town had a shop that sold niches. Some towns had two, three or even more of them. But you know how it is. All those DIY "Changing Rooms" style shows. People started putting their ornaments on the coffee table instead, and that was the end of that industry.

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Andrew Turpie says...
1:38pm Mon 11 Feb 13

Can we take another fake KFC, Poundstore or cash for clothes stores?

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Wacko Jacko says...
6:00pm Mon 11 Feb 13

Paul Gadd wrote:
The greed of the Council and Landlords is killing the road- along with the fact you can't park for more than 30 secs to nip into any shop without a parking inspector leaping out from nowhere to get you.
Paul, get your facts right, the council collect taxes on behalf of central government but get very little back for their efforts. Central Gov. sets the business rates, not the Council, so if you have a beef with rates have a moan at your MP.

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Wacko Jacko says...
6:04pm Mon 11 Feb 13

If local residents want their local shops to thrive, then the answer is to use them. So many people bemoan the demise of traditional shops and shopping streets, but then go and do their main shopping at Tesco etc. 'Use it or lose it' applies here as in so many other spheres of life.

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The Rover says...
7:25pm Mon 11 Feb 13

Wacko Jacko wrote:
If local residents want their local shops to thrive, then the answer is to use them. So many people bemoan the demise of traditional shops and shopping streets, but then go and do their main shopping at Tesco etc. 'Use it or lose it' applies here as in so many other spheres of life.
You never know but the horsemeat fiasco may encourage people to shop locally from independant stores who actually care about the quality of their produce.

I for one will never buy processed meat from a supermarket again.

There are decent butchers like Gibsons in Charter Place & Tolly & Sons in Moor Park who have better quality food and are no more expensive than the meat in a supermarket.

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Harry Caine says...
10:11pm Mon 11 Feb 13

I brought my business to Watford in the mid-70's. At that time the going rate for small factories was judged on a combination of the rent and the business rates. At that time business rates were set by the local council. The average combined cost of these two elements was around £10 a square foot per annum all over the Home Counties and London's suburbs.

In Brent where I lived at the time rates were high so rents were low.

In Watford, because seemingly the controlling administration wished to attract small business, the business rate was half that in Brent.

The other side to this was that as a 2nd tier authority, Watford received 25% of the Business Rate Revenue, 75% going to Hertfordshire County Council.

I understand that this arrangement was the fundamental attraction of the Harlequin Centre for Watford, it would be a cash cow and help reduce the need to hammer residents for revenue.

Then Margaret Thatcher decided to change the whole basis for the calculation of Business rates.

The Inland Revenue would set it and all the money would go to central government who then doled out "grants" to local councils.

The Inland Revenue really didn't have the resources for this mamoth task, so I received a letter asking me how much rent I paid for my factory, this amount ultimately became my Business Rate.

Thus my overall overhead outgoings increased far in excess of those had I plumped for Brent because up until that point, rents were high in Watford with compensating low business rates.

Despite Cammers claims for devolution of Government, local Authorities have far less control over the fortunes of the immediate economic environment having been stripped of their powers to determine one of the primary facets of business overheads.

And that friends is where we are today

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