Your Voice Counts: Our Town Survey is closed
30th June 2025: THANK YOU TO THE 377 INDIVIDUALS WHO COMPLETED OUR SURVEY! It is now closed and we will be analysing the results over the summer to provide a report for the BID Board, The Community, Landlords and Town Centre Stakeholders
1st June 2025: Walton BID (Business Improvement District) was created BY Businesses FOR Businesses and started in February 2021. Since then we have seen our town change, the UK and Global Economy change, a cost of living crisis, high energy bills, inflation, and more recently policy which again increased business costs (national minimum wage, national insurance contributions) and we continue to see the rise in Business Rates and Rents. Alongside the surge in online purchasing, especially since the COVID pandemic, we have seen a loss of traditional ‘town centre’ businesses (retail in particular*) and a new style of Town Centre / High Street emerge – including Hospitality, Leisure and Experiential Activities, and the unprecedented increase in service sectors such as Hair & Beauty (Nail Bars, Barbers, Hairdressers etc).
Some, or all, of these factors have left many in the community of Walton-on-Thames and the surrounding areas stating
‘Walton is Dying’, ‘There is nothing to come for’, ‘Why can’t we have xyz here’ .
So it is time for the BID to ask our community to tell us a little more, in the form of a short survey, so we actually have recorded evidence/data to review – rather than comments on social media platforms which are not ours to review, explore further using experts who studying retail, purchasing, human habits and town centres for a living.
We are looking for honest, factual replies that can enable use to collate evidence for Landlords, potential Investors, businesses who are looking for a place to locate in the South-West London, Surrey area. We cannot guarantee outcomes, BUT we know having a data set WILL give us the power to TRY.
- April 2025 – UK Government Research Briefing ‘Retail Sector in the UK’
- Centre for Retail Research – Industry Papers ‘Who’s Gone Bust?’
- 2024 Retail Lost Daily – The Guardian
- Save The High Street – is an organisation working across the UK, we ‘may’ be able to work with them or other 3rd parties to understand and take action with the data provided/collated in this survey.