Another reason to move to Germany! Timpson boss says High Streets are thriving there because the country does not have UK-style retail parks

The boss of Timpson has slammed UK retail parks after claiming they are contributing to the demise of British high streets – as he praised Germany for its ‘thriving’ town centres.

Timpson Group CEO James Timpson claimed commercial shopping malls were a ‘big problem’ across the country and blamed them for taking footfall away from once bustling town centres.

The 52 year old said there are some ‘terrible’ high streets in the UK where ‘everyone’s just given up’, admitting Timpson stores were ‘partly to blame’ due to their presence at the developments.

He compared the UK’s high streets to those in Germany ‘where they don’t have many retail parks’ and as a result town centres there are ‘thriving.’

It comes just days after Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud also highlighted Germany’s superiority over the UK by claiming the eastern European country had a ‘healthier’ housing market.

Timpson Group CEO James Timpson has slammed UK retail parks after claiming they are contributing to the demise of British high streets

The 52 year old admitted Timpsons stores were ‘partly to blame’ due to their presence at the developments which take footfall away from town centres. Pictured: A Timpson shop in Nottignham, England

Grand Designs star Kevin McCloud who has told first time buyers if they can’t afford to buy a house ‘move to Germany’

However, Mr Timpson said he is ‘quite confident’ about the future of high streets – but suggested councils across the country follow the leads of those in Slough and Maidenhead.

He added that the future depended on ‘long term, brave decisions’ from councils to turn things around.

Speaking on the Full Disclosure podcast, he said: ‘The high streets that I see are a massive variety of some where we can’t even open up a shop because there’s no vacancies and everyone’s there and it’s thriving and it’s busy.

‘And other places where it’s terrible and everyone’s just given up, they might as well just close up.

‘So, the future of the high street, I’m quite confident about but you can’t see them as shops you have to see them as buildings.

‘And actually, it needs long term, brave decisions with the councils really.

‘So, if you go to Slough and Maidenhead, they’re changing the town centres dramatically by basically reducing the number of shops and instead putting cinemas and libraries and senior living and that kind of thing.

‘Whereas others, it needs serious investment – but not to make more shops, but to make them into something else.’

Mr Timpson said he is ‘quite confident’ about the future of high streets

A bustling Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, after re-opening following the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020

Empty shops pictured along a high street in Lowestoft in March 2024

Houses in Germany costs just £232,941 on average. Meanwhile, a pint of beer costs just £2.14 in Germany, while on average in England a pint is £4.21

He continued: ‘The big problem is retail parks. We’re in a lot of retail parks, so we’re sort of partly to blame.

‘But if you go to Germany where they don’t have many retail parks, the town centres are thriving.’

Young Brits living in Germany have spoken of how much they enjoy living abroad after Grand Designs star Kevin McCloud told first time buyers if they can’t afford to buy a house they should ‘move to Germany’.

The TV presenter advised young people looking to get on the property ladder to abandon their hopes of buying a house in the UK and instead ‘move to another country where the housing market is healthy’.

He told the news website JOE that almost every other North European country and Canada have got ‘really healthy markets, lots of diverse opportunities, lots of diverse offers and it isn’t hugely expensive’.

The 64-year-old said: ‘My advice is move to Germany, maybe that’s the way forward.’

Elle, a British woman living in Germany, said one of the best things about the country was the price of alcohol.

She said: ‘You can get a good bottle of wine for €2-3. It’s super cheap.’

Another expat, Berveleen, said: ‘It’s just an hour’s flight from the UK. It’s very easy to drive to other countries. I find it so easy to make friends in Germany.

Expat Jason Parmar said there was ‘good value for food and drinks’ and praised the country’s parks, as well as the nightclubs.

First-time buyers purchased 33% of homes sold in the UK so far this year, marking an all-time high

Elle, a British woman living in Germany, said one of the best things about the country was the price of alcohol

Expat, Berveleen, said: ‘It’s just an hour’s flight from the UK. It’s very easy to drive to other countries. I find it so easy to make friends in Germany

McCloud also took aim at ‘immoral’ housing developers, who he claims now make on average £68,000 profit per house or per flat, compared to 2009, when the figure was ten times less.

McCloud added: ‘They’ve shifted their focus from volume and meeting government targets to the profit they deliver to their shareholders.

‘Persimmon, the year before last made £1.1 billion of profit for their shareholders, 25 per cent of their turnover.

‘I’ve only got one word for it and I think it’s immoral.’

Speaking about the state of the UK housing market, McCloud said: ‘I look at the UK market and I see nothing good here.

‘I look at what’s happening in Germany, Holland, Netherlands, Denmark, Scandinavia, I look at other, almost every other North European country and Canada – they’ve got really healthy markets, lots of diverse opportunities, lots of diverse offers and it isn’t hugely expensive.’

Foreigners can buy properties in Germany with relative ease.

Even since Brexit, people from non-EU countries can borrow up to 60 per cent mortgages.

Not all banks offer expats mortgages. DKB and Santander are two that do but having even a temporary residence may improve a person’s chances.

House prices in Germany have historically been far more stable than those in Britain

England’s trend of ownership is in stark contrast to Germany, where many more people rent

In Germany, the professional sector of people and companies that own property to let it out, is much more invested in the market (37 per cent) than in the UK (18 per cent)

Traditionally, Germany has a much higher rate of housebuilding compared to the UK

An extensive report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) concluded that Britain’s development sector is ‘warped by decades of housing market volatility, the departure of local authorities from the housebuilding sphere, and cuts to capital grant that collectively could have insulated the development market from significant shocks’.

The report claims that ‘the UK has both a pro-cyclical housing and development marke’.

It added: ‘By contrast, Germany is in a stronger position: its mortgage market has been more tightly regulated and consequently its market (and economy) is less vulnerable to economic downturns; and housing construction is undertaken by a far greater number of actors, including large housebuilders but also, crucially, many smaller, regionally based actors and a significant not-for-profit sector (both within and outside public ownership).

‘The two countries utilise the powers of government in quite different ways. In Germany, although private enterprise is crucial in housing finance, housing development and management of stock, the state, locally and nationally, plays a far more ‘interventionist’ role – in regulation (for instance, of rents and of the mortgage market), in land assembly, and in housing development itself (albeit often through locally owned companies).

‘However, in the UK, although the parameters of policy are set by government, the trend is towards stepping back the role of the state in housing provision, and then becoming active when markets cannot achieve satisfactory outcomes (for instance by providing mortgage guarantees, or through the provision of housing benefit to households unable to afford their rent).’

The latest Nationwide house price index showed house prices fell slightly in March, with a 0.2 per cent decline in the average property value.

The monthly decline was down to seasonal adjustment – which aims to smooth out months that are typically more and less active – whereas the non-adjusted average house price actually rose slightly from £260,420 in February to £261,14 in March.

It means the typical home, according to Nationwide’s data, has edged up 1.6 per cent annually, with headline figures dragged back by southern England’s stuttering property market.

A graph showing the average percentage growth in in house prices across the UK

This map of annual house price changes across the UK shows the North-South divide. House prices are rising in the north and falling in the south

On the same day, Halifax also reported property prices fell in March, reflecting the first monthly fall since September 2023.

The major mortgage lender revealed the average home price fell 1 per cent last month, following five consecutive months of rises.

Despite reports’ focus on headline house price figures, the UK housing market doesn’t just move as one.

It is made up of thousands of local markets that will all be performing differently from one another.

These differences can even be seen at a regional level where there is evidence of a North-South divide opening up. Prices are generally rising in the North and falling in the South.

The average house price during the first three months of 2024 in Northern Ireland, for example, is up 4.6 per cent year-on-year, according to Nationwide.

Prices in Scotland are 3.7 per cent higher over the past three months than they were during the same period in 2023.

And in the North of England the average home is up 4 per cent in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year.

Prices in the South West are down 1.7 per cent compared to this time last year and prices in East Anglia are 1.3 per cent lower.

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