Bill Grimsey and Mary Portas may have more in common than either would care to admit. Both have passionately articulated the vast challenge that faces high street retailers.

Bill Grimsey and Mary Portas may have more in common than either would care to admit. Both have passionately articulated the vast challenge that faces high street retailers and both have personalities that attract the kind of media attention that ensures this issue remains in the spotlight, but runs the risk of overshadowing the complexities of a solution.

In his review, billed as an “alternative future for the high street”, former Focus and Iceland boss Grimsey this week delivered a 31-point plan to reinvigorate these hubs of commerce and community.

Portas meanwhile was once again arguing, this time in front of the select committee for the Department for Communities and Local Government, for the need for greater political leadership if sustained progress is to be achieved. It is a core tenet of Grimsey’s vision too, and he calls for the appointment of a Minister for the High Street.

But it is political leadership that has been palpably lacking since the plight of the high street first became apparent.

And nothing in the recent rhetoric suggests a shift in appetite to accept greater responsibility in Westminster.

The truth is the retail industry is over-regulated and under-supported. There should be scepticism that greater central Government involvement can solve an issue that is as structurally complex as this.

The biggest contribution the Government can make is to find the will to finally address the rates burden on the sector and cut red tape - points Portas and Grimsey effectively agree on. The high street will never rely as heavily on retail again, but the stimulus to private enterprise this would spark, allied to market forces unsuppressed by over regulation, would provide the kind of leadership needed to start right-sizing the high streets and restoring them to centres for local enterprise.