Professor Leigh Sparks may not have anticipated spending the bulk of his academic career in Scotland when he came north to take up a post with the then-fledgling University of Stirling more than 40 years ago. But as the Cambridge-educated academic prepares to retire as deputy principal and professor of retail studies in September, he’s certainly made his mark on the Scottish landscape.
Professor Sparks established a reputation as the “go-to” commentator for journalists on retail matters, with his expertise underlined by his work as chair of Scotland’s Towns Partnership, an influential body of experts set up to shape policy and drive forward the agenda of the nation’s urban areas.
The academic will not be retiring completely. He will continue to chair Scotland’s Towns Partnership and plans to resurrect some academic reports he had put on the “back burner”.
Asked to reflect on the past four decades, Professor Sparks said there has been “quite a change in retail and places” during the course of his career”.
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“It’s that creeping change in some sense,” he told The Herald Business HQ Monthly. “It has not been a single bang and everything has gone one way. It has been a long-term trend of change in the sector, which I think is probably the most interesting [thing] that we have seen.
“I’ve always enjoyed the research work. I have always enjoyed doing things with businesses and the work in Scotland’s Town Partnerships. Making things better for people has always been part of what I think academics should be doing out in the community.”
He pinpoints the “rapid” growth of out-of-town shopping centres in the 1980s and early 1990s as a seminal development in the evolution of retail, noting the “widespread impact” and change on consumer behaviour it would ultimately have was not “fully appreciated” at the time.
This was followed from the mid-1990s onwards by a further seismic change with the advent of the internet and online shopping, he noted.
“In one sense those go in opposition to each other,” Professor Sparks said. “We built all this new physical space – we always struggle to know what to do with old space. Overlain on that we have had a switch to online, which has meant our need for space has changed quite markedly, and in a different direction to what we are doing in the first 20 years of my period up here.
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“It is not to say any of that was wrong. Currently, I’m a bit fixated [on the fact] Stirling Council have given planning permission [in May] to a major out-of-town retail development, which just staggers me. It is beyond belief.
“I am often seen now as being against new developments, but I think we have benefited from a higher quality than we would have had in the past. That is both true of the larger businesses in many cases and also of smaller stores. I think the convenience sector has changed dramatically over that 40-year period, much to the better. So we needed to modernise and we have modernised. But the consequences of that on places, on the range of spaces we have, allied to that technological issue, have caused us quite a few issues we now need to begin to deal with more seriously.”
The changes that have swept through the retail sector over recent years are laid bare in areas such as Glasgow city centre that, despite occasional green shoots, continue to suffer from a post-pandemic hangover. Sauchiehall Street has come under particular focus because of its excess of vacant units and the generally poor condition of the public realm, though Professor Sparks said Glasgow is not alone in facing these challenges.
Professor Leigh Sparks
Asked what can be done to find new uses for empty commercial units in Glasgow, he said: “All big cities and most towns are challenged in that way. It is not as if there is anything particularly distinct about the broad changes Glasgow has seen. It has some advantages in many ways because it has some fabulous buildings.
“The question is how do we re-use those buildings? It is not going to be retail space. There will be some, so it is what other things can we put into those spaces, whether that’s on the leisure side, health, or in the upper floors more living accommodation? The number of people living in Glasgow in the centre is now much higher than it was earlier in the piece.
“All of those things need to be done and can be done. But as we argued two or three years ago in A New Future for Scotland’s Towns [report by Scotland’s Towns Partnership], if we structurally still privilege out-of-town businesses and locations, and focus on that side of development and make it more expensive to re-use buildings [VAT is applied to the refurbishment older buildings but not newbuilds], and make it more expensive for rates in town centres, we are not going to get the change we need. It is going to be much more of a struggle.
“So, there are structural levers that need to be pulled to really benefit town centres to get that vibrancy back into those buildings. But we need to value that historical asset because it is what makes the place.”
The main focus of Scotland’s Towns Partnership over recent months has been its work with Cosla and the Scottish Government on promoting town centre living and overcoming the challenges developers face in providing more housing in urban areas.
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Professor Sparks said “there are many stumbling blocks” at present, including a dearth of expertise on restoration of heritage buildings, but noted there was a “demand out there for different types of living and to make it easier to make those developments happen”.
The idea is not to promote “capsule living” but “quality [homes] bringing people back into city centres”.
He added: “There was a recent piece done by Land Commission, ourselves [Scotland’s Towns Partnerships], SDP, and Scottish Futures Trust.
“That gave about 25 examples where really good practice has occurred across Scotland and it is now trying to see how we can scale that practice to other locations as well. So I think there are places showing it can be done. The question is getting it done more widely and at better scale.”
Left, Professor Leigh Sparks will retire as deputy principal and professor of retail studies at the University of Stirling in September Main picture – Buchanan Street in Glasgow
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