It’s time to reclaim your high streets, public told

High streets need to offer more than just shopping, and be a vibrant centre for entertainment, culture, education and social activity in order to compete with internet shopping, supermarkets and out-of-town retail parks.

Towns also need to rediscover what makes them unique in order to thrive, offering “irresistible opportunities and experiences that do not exist elsewhere”.

The study, by Urban Pollinators, a consultancy on rural regeneration, comes as retail adviser and television presenter Mary Portas prepares to report back on a Government-backed review of the nation’s high streets.

It recommends local people rally round to drag their town centres out of the recession, which has seen a dramatic slump in consumer spending and the collapse of high street names like Woolworths, Borders and Adams.

It calls on the Government to empower residents by allowing them to take over disused assets on a “right to try” basis, converting empty shop units into art studios, meeting rooms or other community space.

Julian Dobson, the author of the report, said: “Towns are not going to return to what they were before. There is no recovery around the corner to save the high street. People won’t have as much money to spend and they’re looking for convenience, so they use internet shopping or visit the supermarket.

“At the moment, people think of towns as retail with other stuff attached to it but we need a different experience.

“There will always be retail but we’re already seeing trends of spending in supermarkets increasing and this is difficult to replicate on the high street.

“Town centres need to find what resonates with local people, and community and civic organisations need to find out what works.”

Mr Dobson said he hoped that the independent review on high streets by Ms Portas, presenter of BBC 2’s Mary, Queen of Shops, would make the Government “face reality” and draw up plans to help ordinary people run their town centres.

“It’s definitely about local people taking an interest and taking control,” he said. “For example, in the Localism Bill, there is provision for people to take over unused public and private assets. We would like to see a right to try rather than a right to buy policy for empty properties, which could be made into art studios or places for political discussions. There are all sorts of possibilities.

“We also need the Government’s planning proposals to be combined with powers similar to those of parish councils with a precept to target town centres. It requires enthusiasm but also resources, so it would be good to see the Government putting some money in to encourage pilot schemes.”

Action for Market Towns policy manager Alison Eardley said: “We encourage Mary Portas, in her review into the UK’s high street, not only to improve the opportunities available to the independent retailer but also to explore the wider role of the town centre as a focal point for neighbourhoods and social activity.”

Empty Shops Network founder Dan Thompson said: “High streets will never come back to what they were. We opened 88 million square feet of extra shop space at a time when internet shopping was taking off and out-of-town retail developments were opening everywhere.

“They need to be community centres with more vibrancy. Every town has something that makes it interesting – it’s about unlocking those little stories.”