23 Dec Looking back and looking ahead
As another year draws to a close, there is time to reflect and give some thought to how the year ahead might start.
2024 saw us working on projects across the country; reviving high streets, guiding partnership structures, considering the future of markets and interim roles in operations.
Our founder, Diane, concluded her role as an Expert with the government’s High Street Task Force as the programme ended. Over four years, the most valuable contributions weren’t always the formal recommendations, but acting as a critical friend to local authorities and helping them see that things weren’t as challenging as they thought.
What we have been up to
- Developing practical options for Kendal Market Hall by focusing on commercial and operational models, before design and build
- Supporting Hyde town centre partnership through activation and engagement strategies as one of the High Street Accelerator locations
- An interim COO role with oneday focused on concluding the set-up stage of Bowring Park & Golf Course and developing new opportunities
- Working in Kent on a street markets review to agree the future direction for two struggling town centres
- Overhauling messaging and company pitch for social enterprise Mediorite to support them in winning new business
- Expanding our work in the visitor economy in Lincolnshire
- Diane’s roles with The London Society and The Fabric CIC continue.
As we head into 2025, we are continuing with projects on meanwhile use, business engagement and Christmas activation evaluation and we are starting new projects working with town centres in new locations.
We are expecting to see a shift in the year ahead as local authorities face increasing pressure in meeting their statutory obligations with reduced budgets. The high street funding awarded under the previous government is nearing the end of its timeline too.
However, there are other ways to fund the type of work we do and we are looking forward to those conversations.
Town centres and retail are also at a pivotal approach; we need to stop mourning the loss of stores and the air of nostalgia in changing high streets. What do people want to find there and how might we provide this for them? People still want places to gather, play and socialise and many places still have people working in them which are all things to be celebrated.
In 2025, we will continue to focus on practical implementation – particularly around markets transformation and town centre activation.
We continue to find that our projects start with understanding how places work rather than imposing theoretical solutions. We will keep pushing for realistic action plans as an output from our projects as opposed to another report to go on the pile!
If you are starting to think about new projects, get in touch, if you think we can support you.