Queen of Shops Mary Portas has launched a blistering attack on the government amid fears that her high street review is losing momentum.
Speaking at the BCSC conference in Liverpool this afternoon, Portas said she feared the government’s review to re-energise the high street was just a public relations stunt.
She said: “I’m trying to recreate the high street. Is this just a big PR stunt by the government or a real effort? If we are putting the town centres first, the government needs to address the issues.
“Until the government says there is a real town-centre-first approach, and frees up parking and red tape, I think this could be a PR thing.”
Portas claimed she was not talking to anyone in the government, and was waiting to meet Grant Shapps’ successor Mark Prisk following prime minister David Cameron’s cabinet reshuffle last week.
“The reshuffle worries me,” she said. “I don’t think the high street review is a number one priority for the government, but we have to keep knocking away at it. I will go in there and talk to them. It’s a nation empowering themselves. I don’t know who is fighting for it (in government).”
Portas also insisted that she was not employed by the government: “I didn’t chose the pilots. It’s just me trying to give as much to towns as possible.”
