End of the High Streets Task Force, what lessons can we learn?

‘Expert’ status

Being an ‘expert’ was a title I wore loosely as it takes many people to change a high street, not one ‘expert’ who is involved for a few days.

I worked with 15 locations across the North West and in London, and, of course, there was never enough time to do as much as we would like. It was particularly challenging where people had a strong regeneration team but were under-resourced.

Questions about the future regeneration of high streets remain: Has the approach worked, and what lessons can we carry forward?

What the programme has done is help bolster the capability and expertise of those on the ground. In the little time we had, we had to leverage experience and work from other places that could be adapted.

There are advantages to being out (the office) a lot and seeing a diverse range of places as it can give perspective around the challenges a particular high street has. Sometimes, I found my role was to convey how the town really wasn’t that bad.

It was evident that while the places don’t have anything in common on paper, they face similar challenges in creating an offer that attracts more people to their high street or town centre. 

The key to success came down to places having the resources to take recommendations forward. You can recommend as much as you like, but it often doesn’t make any difference if the resources aren’t there to deliver it.

The importance of partnerships

On the projects I worked on, it was evident how important partnerships were, both in getting the right people in the room for workshops and in developing informal groups that could take ideas forward quickly.

The HSTF’s 4Rs framework – repositioning, reinventing, rebranding, restructuring – was a simple way of bringing people together around the challenges facing their place, whatever their area of expertise.

Based on the work done up until the end of 2023, the Task Force’s key findings aligned to the 4Rs were:

• 40% of places visited required stronger place partnerships (restructuring)
• 27% of high streets needed to focus on further activating their places (reinventing)
• 18% of places needed to focus on place branding activities (rebranding)
• 15% of places required greater data usage decision-making (repositioning)

Repositioning

Sound decisions are based on a mix of data, first-hand knowledge and external views of places. The places we worked with were split in terms of their access to data and engagement which had taken place.

Some, such as the City of London, had an abundance of data, including from Transport for London, which meant in-depth knowledge of work and travel patterns and how this had changed post-COVID.

Other places struggled to gain insight into movement around their town. They had dated engagement findings which needed to be refreshed rather than continuing to use old data to shape future plans.

Reinventing

It starts with the offer, and in workshops the focus can sometimes be a little back to front. Running a marketing campaign (rebranding) to get people into town only works if you’ve got something to offer them beyond empty shops.

Places need activating and animating to attract people and need a wider offer, encompassing retail and non-retail, to keep people coming back.

You only get one chance to get people to take another look at their high street, so you have to find an attractive hook. There isn’t a magic wand; you have to go back to basics and put your building blocks in place.

Restructuring

Restructuring involves the right leadership and partnerships, particularly where large-scale change might be needed to deliver change. This might involve a wholesale structural change to a town centre, likely aligned to a masterplan and/or significant funding streams. Equally important is having the structure in place to make decisions via boards, groups or other formations which don’t always rely on the local authority.

Rebranding

Places often struggle with their identity through the loss of what they were known for and falling into decline or attachment to an old identity despite the place changing.

Rebranding focuses on telling a positive story about the place and developing a consistent narrative that can build pride of place in residents and encourage buy-in from others. But, reinvention often needs to happen first or be planned.

Post High Streets Task Force, what’s next?

New initiatives like the High Street Accelerator Programme signal a continued commitment to boosting high streets. I’ve been working with Hyde in Greater Manchester on the development of their partnership as one of the 10 High Street Accelerator Fund recipients.

If the HSTF could be relaunched or reimaged, more time and fewer places would be better, along with knowing that the resources are in place – people and funding – within the local authority (or other groups) to take forward the recommendations.

The HSTF resource library (here) will remain freely accessible online and is packed with more information on the 4Rs framework, case studies and templates to replicate the task force’s work.

The task force will also be providing analysis of the programme as it wraps up.