Mary Portas accuses coalition of failing high street shops

Retail guru Mary Portas has criticised the government for being slow to provide funding and guidance for suffering UK high streets in an essay which takes on her critics by highlighting the successes of towns which have followed her guidance.

Two years after the coalition responded to Portas's 2011 review of the high street in which she made a string of recommendations, she writes: "Progress from central government has been far slower than I'd hoped." She also blamed "bumpy starts" at the 27 Portas Pilot towns on "vague supporting processes" and "insufficient guidance from government".

The pilot towns have faced criticism over their use of £1.9m in government funding, while some towns have been very slow to spend money at all.

Portas says teams are now getting better support but also questions the government's commitment to the "town centre first" planning policy, which is supposed to help protect local high streets, pointing out that at the end of last year 31 of the 43 retail developments permitted since new planning laws came into force were out of town. "Town centre first is a policy convincingly bandied around, but the approval of out-of-town development still happens at a depressing rate, so I question whether local and central government really mean it," Portas writes.

In the essay, entitled Why Our High Streets Still Matter, which she has posted on her website, Portas is generally upbeat, arguing: "High streets will thrive if we re-imagine them."

She says that those who criticise the Portas Pilot towns fail to recognise their progress and that they were just one part of her plan. "There are now 400 town teams that got no money from the government but are following my recommendations and having great success," she says.

She points out the success of several towns, including Rotherham, which has been able to draw in more shoppers and reduce the number of empty shops with a mix of training for shopowners, the launch of a local market, pop-up shops and a creative hub for local artists and crafts people.

She also highlights the popularity of her suggestion for a national market day – which has led to the Love Your Local Market campaign and National Markets Fortnight. At this year's event in May, 915 markets signed up. "Every initiative has come off the back of two years of pushing the government for change," says Portas. But she admits: "Of course we have got a way to go. Have I got it all right? No."