A new Government report says that UK towns need to undertake “place branding” if high streets are to survive.
The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee used Altrincham and Malton as examples of how this can happen.
Altrincham decided to brand itself as a “modern market town,” while for Malton in North Yorkshire, the hook was food.
“Towns need […] to perk up, work out what they can do well, do it and wave a flag,” explained Roddy Bushell, the former Malton Estate Manager.
“Malton chose food, because it had credibility in food production and food retail, and that has been incredibly helpful for people to understand what is going on; otherwise, it is very difficult to focus people on doing that.”
The committee cautioned that this wasn’t purely just a branding exercise, instead it required “authenticity” and backing from public, private and community sectors, so that it didn’t become a “cynical exercise.”
The report, High Streets and Town Centres in 2030 was published this morning after a 6 month inquiry.
“In recent years, high streets and town centres have faced extremely challenging times. We have seen the collapse of a number of well-known, national high street chains, with many more undergoing restructuring or being bought out. The growth of online shopping has profoundly changed retail in the UK, and the knock-on impact on high streets has been stark,” said Clive Betts MP, the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee.
“It is likely that the heyday of the high street primarily as a retail hub is at an end. However, this need not be its death knell. Local authorities must get to grips with the fact that their town centres need to change; they need to innovate, setting out a long-term strategy for renewal, reconfiguring the town centre and finding new ways of using buildings and encouraging new independent retailers.
“We must begin a period of renewal and regeneration, establishing high streets as focal points of our communities comprising green space and health, education and leisure services, as well as a core of retail. At a local and national level, government must create a framework that allows high streets and town centres to thrive. Local authorities must have the foresight to develop evolving strategies tailored to the needs of their local communities and drive the large-scale transformation needed. Central government must give them the powers, and back them financially, to allow them to put this into practice.”
Its overall conclusions were that high streets and town centres “can survive and thrive, by 2030” providing they adapt. It believes that this can be done by placing less emphasis on retail and more on green spaces, leisure, arts and culture, to make areas based on “social and community interactions.”
Further recommendations are that the Government “urgently” assesses an increase in VAT, online sales tax and “green taxes” on deliveries and packaging. It should also reduce business rates.
The report’s authors warned:
“Unless this urgent action is taken, we fear that further deterioration, loss of visitors and dereliction may lead to some high streets and town centres disappearing altogether.”
