After a summer of economic uncertainty and civil unrest, UK retail needs a lift. The opening of the £1.45bn Westfield Stratford City is exactly that tonic.

After a summer of economic uncertainty and civil unrest, UK retail needs a lift. The opening of the £1.45bn Westfield Stratford City is exactly that tonic.

It’s a scheme that has been two decades in the making, and is opening at a time when few other developments have been able to stack up financially. But what makes Stratford unique is that it sits just metres away from the Olympic Park. For just over two weeks next year, it will put retail in the front row of the greatest show on earth.

It’s a scheme that retailers have embraced enthusiastically, from anchor tenants John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose, down to smaller operations dipping their toe in a major shopping centre for the first time.

The soaraway success of Westfield London on the other side of the capital has given retailers confidence to go to Stratford, a part of London which in truth wouldn’t have been on the radar of many of them before.

And that perhaps is what’s most important about Westfield Stratford City. While inextricably linked with the Olympics, this isn’t about 16 days – this is about a lasting commitment to one of the most deprived areas of the country, from the developer, and from the 300 retail and 70 leisure operators opening in the scheme.

It’s a commitment that will lead to the creation of 10,000 jobs for people in an area that desperately needs them. There could be no better illustration of the power of retail to create opportunities and prosperity.