Mary Portas to revive our high streets

Queen of retail and no-nonsense TV star Mary Portas is to carry out a government-backed review aimed at boosting the Great British high street

Queen of retail and no-nonsense TV star Mary Portas is to carry out a government-backed review aimed at boosting the Great British high street.

To boost spending and promote smaller high street stores, Portas will be investigating the problem of empty shops and how to prevent the growth of 'clone towns' dominated by chain stores.

The former creative director at Harvey Nichols is renowned for transforming under-performing shops in hit shows Mary Queen of Shops and Secret Shopper.

With reports suggesting that our high street spending won't return to pre-recession levels until 2013 in the UK, the government is taking action and bringing in the big guns - cue Ms Portas.

'I am delighted that Mary Portas has agreed to take on this review and I am confident that her straight-talking, no-nonsense approach will help us to create vibrant and diverse town centres and bring back the bustle to our high street', says PM David Cameron.

Portas is set to visit town centres and meet with store owners and shoppers to get ideas on how to develop diverse town centres before presenting her report in autumn.

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