Portas to push for rates discounts and ‘high street teams’

Mary ‘Queen of Shops’ Portas will present her review ‘The Future of Our High Streets’ to the Government today (December 13)

The retail guru was commissioned to undertake the review earlier this year by the Prime Minister, David Cameron.

The report is expected to focus on traditional problem areas such as town centre parking and planning restrictions. But in an interview in The Observer yesterday Portas said that she would also float some more radical ideas including offering start-ups the same 80% business rate relief as charity shops.

She will also call for the formation of high street management teams, following her conclusion that local high streets should be managed in the same way as shopping malls and supermarkets.