Commercial Road regeneration needs 'creative thinking' as election candidates say they're 'ashamed' of the city centre

During a hustings event hosted by Portsmouth High School, candidates for Portsmouth South were quizzed on the health of the city’s shopping areas – with some expressing shame at the state of the city centre. The questioner remarked on the “sharp decline” in retail hubs in Portsmouth and Southsea and asked how each candidate felt about it.

Labour candidate Stephen Morgan expressed his concerns, saying he’s “ashamed” of Commercial Road, where the Debenhams department store has been left derelict since March 2020. He also raised fears over Palmerston Road in Southsea, where another former Debenhams is being redeveloped to “bring life” to the area.

He added that Portsmouth should see the investment that “it rightly deserves” and stressed he wants to return “anchor stores” to highstreets to attract other retailers.

Conservative candidate Signe Biddle criticised Portsmouth City Council, saying high streets “are looking fairly poor, obviously, the local council is directly involved in that – you should be asking your Lib Dem council what they’ll do about it”. She highlighted the government’s levelling up scheme, which provides £5.6bn for high streets “across the country”.

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Liberal Democrat candidate Charlie Murphy emphasised the broader national issues affecting high streets. “If you go to Waterlooville, you’ll see it’s not a problem of parties in power in the council, this is a national problem. He added that online shopping is a problem that will “stay with us” and that we have to regenerate town centres by “being creative on how we’re using them and responding to the changing times”.

Reform UK candidate Mark Zimmer reminisced about the past vibrancy of Portsmouth’s high streets. “Christmas in Commercial Road was fantastic,” he said. He described huge streets as the “hubs of the community” which is important to people’s “sense of belonging”.

Green Party candidate Elliott Lee called for local community involvement in budget decisions. “I’m a proponent of participatory budgeting, where the local community actually has a say in how we spend a local budget – that way they can have a say in what they want in their community.”

Jacob Short of the Portsmouth Independent Party highlighted the issue of high business rates. “The big issue is that business rates are too high, so small local businesses struggle. “I would push for lower business rates to ensure that our local business owners don’t just have a place for footfall – but they have support from the local government and their MP.”