City centre boss slams retailers over flawed crime claims

The chief executive of the Manchester city centre management company is pushing back at claims by retailers that there is a surge in shoplifting by organised crime gangs.

Vaughan Allen, chief executive of CityCo Manchester, the city centre management company, told TheBusinessDesk.com that crime is categorically not up by 25% in Manchester city centre, a claim made by the British Retail Consortium, backed up by recent press reports from the Co-operative and the shop workers union USDAW, which further imply that police don’t respond to reports of thefts. 

“The statistics they are using are wrong. I’ve asked for a source and evidence of the methodology and they haven’t provided it. We are just not seeing the massive increase they are referring to.”

In an earlier LinkedIn post Allen was scathing about the “blaze of statistics” claiming that retail crime is up ‘26% across ten of the largest cities in the country.’ 

“This has been quoted countless times. And yet, I can’t find the research report. It’s not linked from the BRC’s press release, not linked from ANY of the news stories. And it’s not even mentioned on the BRC’s LinkedIn feed (weird, right?).”

“I *know* that retail crime (at least in the city centre) hasn’t gone up by anything like that amount, I’m suspicious that there’s been some cherry picking…,” he said.

The BRC survey 2023 claimed the total cost of retail crime stood at £1.76 billion in 2021/22. £953 million was lost to customer theft, with eight million incidents of theft over the year. Retailers also spent £715 million on crime prevention in 2021/22. In 2023 100 retail CEOs wrote to 41 Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales, including Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, calling them to commit to making retail crime a priority in local policing strategies.

Matt Hood, managing director of the Co-op retail business said in September that he was “increasingly frustrated” about police inaction, and claimed Police failed to respond to 71% of reports of serious crimes.

“We need police to be on the front foot in helping us retailers deal with persistent offenders,” Hood said.

However, in a letter to Manchester city centre business, the CityCo boss, along with the City Council’s deputy leader and the Greater Manchester Police, have called on businesses to report crime, contrary to claims that the police aren’t interested.

“You will have seen recent national media coverage on the issue of retail crime. Much of the coverage has focused on an alleged unwillingness on the part of the police to respond to reports of retail crime, or to deal with offenders, and this is likely to have increased insecurity and caused worry to business owners and managers across the country,” the letter said.

It continues: “We want to take this opportunity to assure your business managers that GMP treats retail crime seriously and wants all reports of retail crime to be reported. This is particularly important if crime takes the form of an assault or other violence – these are a major priority for the force, and maximum reporting is encouraged.”

The letter goes on to outline the steps businesses can take to report crime and anti-social behaviour or verbal abuse through the DISC app (a secure reporting system).

Allen has also been critical of retail businesses who are cutting back on staff and introducing self-service checkouts and remote security. “If you have fewer staff, no local security, no visible control, you are NOT protecting your store or your people,” he said by way of comment on a story about thefts from a store on Wigan.

He also said in response to a story about AI bots being adopted in retail: “If self-serve scanners in shops are hugely frustrating, how much more frustrating are AI bots attempting to respond to humans raising issues. This is baking in failure. If you wonder why your company will then face people kicking off, shouting at your staff–well, you did it yourself.

“Value your shopfloor staff. Value your people. The service industry is a core connector within the community.”

Later in the year a CityCo campaign is to address how low-level anti-social behaviour often results in aggression towards service and retail staff.