"It’s important to remember that shops are only one component of high streets, and a variety of uses can assist in ensuring the vitality and viability of our high streets and town centres."
- Catherine Pollard - Boyer
High streets and town centres are facing a plethora of problems, most of which are linked to the changing face of the retail industry. The Centre for Retail Research has described the British retail industry as facing a “permacrisis” since the 2008 financial crisis, as a result of factors including the rise of internet retailing, changes in consumer preferences, store closures and other changes on the high street, many of which were accelerated by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Challenges faced by high street retailers and the associated problems in town centres have seen the creation of several initiatives and funding schemes designed to help them adapt to an era in which traditional retail may no longer be the focal point of town centres. These include the Future High Streets Fund, High Street Heritage Action Zones, the Long Term Plan for Towns and High Street Accelerators, as well as the creation of the High Streets Task Force, an organisation composed of high street experts providing tailored guidance, support and resources to local authorities on high street issues.
Despite this, our high streets and town centres continue to have ever-increasing numbers of empty units, many of which - particularly the larger units such as those previously occupied by Debenhams or Marks and Spencer - create large holes in the high street scene. High streets also come under fire from the national press with complaints they now only contain charity shops or coffee shops, with the traditional variety of the high street a distant memory.
The High Streets (Designation, Review and Improvement Plan) Bill, introduced as a Private Members Bill in December 2023, sought to assist local planning authorities in their efforts to improve high streets in towns across England. This would have required local authorities to designate high streets in their area, to undertake and publish periodic reviews of the condition of those high streets and to develop action plans for their improvement.
This sounds ideal in principle, and the Bill did gain some support on its route through the Commons. However, not all were supportive of its aims, with the Local Government Association (LGA) criticising it as being “unnecessary” and “a distraction from what councils really need to protect and enhance the future of their high streets”.
Many suggest that a council’s ability to improve its high streets has already been hampered by successive extensions of permitted development rights and changes to the national Use Class Order, resulting in less control over land uses such as retail, offices and takeaways - meaning local people have less of a say over what their high streets can look like.
More recently, the size limit and vacancy requirement have been changed which means any Class E building can more readily be converted to residential, reducing further the ability for councils to help protect and improve their high streets.
However, it’s important to remember that shops are only one component of high streets, and a variety of uses can assist in ensuring the vitality and viability of our high streets and town centres. We have seen many examples of larger empty shop units being converted to leisure facilities, such as escape rooms, go-kart tracks, or axe throwing, which are helping to enhance the night-time economy.
In some towns, the councils themselves are looking to move their offices to the town centre to help improve the daytime footfall. The inclusion of residential uses in the town centre can also be beneficial in increasing footfall as well as reducing the fear of crime and other cultural impacts often associated with town centres during the evening.
The Bill had its second reading in the House of Lords in May 2024 but like so much other legislation, fell victim to the announcement of a general election coming a week afterwards and was lost in the ‘wash-up’ of parliamentary bills.
The question remains, what will the new government do to resolve the ‘permacrisis’: can a Bill of this nature be progressed, or are there better opportunities to enhance the town centres? Either way, the next government must find a solution to raising footfall, both during the day and into the evening, and create vibrant high streets and town centres.
