Firefighter, roughneck, surveyor, trainee lawyer and nascent networking specialist Steven Latta blogs for The Firm.

August saw the announcement of the successful bids in the first round of funding in the Scottish Government's new Town Centre Regeneration Fund. £40 million was allocated to 48 town centres to “ help revitalise town centres and sustain town centre jobs”. The fund is further recognition of the issues that have faced our town centres in the last few decades.

Increasingly, cash-rich and time-poor consumers have shunned established town centres throughout the UK in favour of internet shopping, late opening supermarkets and out of town shopping centres. Free, abundant car parking and economies of scale that are reflected in the prices of their products have, unsurprisingly, been hugely successful. As the range of goods sold by, in particular, the 'Big Four' of Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys has grown, the impact on many high street retailers has been tangible.

Town centres, which were once at the economic and social heart of communities, are increasingly being populated with charity shops and empty units where before there was a diverse range of retailers and service providers. The town centres which appear to be most vulnerable are the smaller ones or those which are in close proximity to a regional out of town shopping centre. From a surveyor’s perspective, this is evidenced by the rental growth, or lack of it in town centres.

Looking at editions of Chartered Surveying firm Ryden’s Review of Commercial Property over the years shows us that prime retail rents in Coatbridge in the period 1992 – 2007 have risen by just 2%. Paisley, often cited as Scotland’s largest town actually seen a decrease in Zone A rents during this period and in 1997, Dumbarton and Wishaw were the first of the West of Scotland towns to be ‘relegated’ from Ryden’s Top Scottish retail locations as the Gyle and later Braehead came on stream.

Interesting, but what does it have to do with solicitors? Well, rents are a function of the commercial value of a property. This is evident everywhere on our town’s high streets; it is becoming increasingly difficult to operate or sustain a business in these locations.

And it’s not just retailers. Dollond and Aitchison, founded in 1750, claim to be the oldest opticians in the UK with around 400 branches. Asda and Tesco, respectively, entered the opticians market in 1990 and 1998 and between them now have around 170 in-store opticians. The number of travel agents in the UK reached a peak in 1989 and now stand at a two-thirds of that figure. Finally, on a trip to Manchester in April I popped into the Sainsbury’s store in Sale.

This store is the first in the UK to have an instore dentist!

Tesco law has been looming over the profession for some time and I am not going to venture into the area of the impact on high street law firms. Nor am I going to speculate as to whether small town high streets are increasingly becoming “off the radar” for at least a section of consumers of legal services. There is no doubt, however, that the impact of the internet, the Big 4, and regional out of town shopping centres are and will continue to shape the role of our town centres and impact, to a greater or lesser extent, on the retailers and service providers that populate them.

On a more positive note I caught up with a friend of mine last week who is a business advisor at Business Gateway in Glasgow. Apparently, business has never been better. For the last year around 90 new business start-ups a month have been going through Business Gateway’s office in Buchanan Street in Glasgow.

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention and redundancies and the lack of employment opportunities are pushing many individuals into becoming their own bosses. The businesses which pass through Business Gateway are many and varied. Like any businesses many will be unsustainable, and fold, and a few will go from strength to strength.

Some will be driven forward by savvy serial entrepreneurs and many more by business novices. What they all have in common, however, is that at some point in their life the right legal advice will add value to what they do.

On a final note, I am reliably informed that Microsoft, McDonalds, Proctor & Gamble and the Disney Corporation were all formed during a recession. Are you ready to grow with your clients?