Perspectives 2019

CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD 23 ROUND UP The High Streets Task Force The government has also established the High Streets Task Force – a body comprised of high street experts with a wide range of experience in planning and design. The Task Force’s role goes considerably beyond just supporting these bids: it also extends to helping all other local authorities in England who want to breathe new life into their high streets and town centres as they battle against changing consumer habits. It has been established with four main aims: • Boost local authority capacity • Build placemaking skills • Increase coordination amongst stakeholders • Share best practice, information and data Future High Streets Fund The next steps for short-listed local authorities The first round of final business cases for Future High Streets Fund bids must be submitted by 30 April 2020. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has assigned Delivery Managers to support and challenge local authorities as they progress their chosen schemes. The robustness of these plans will be the key determinant as to which of the shortlisted areas receive funding and how much each local authority will eventually be allocated. An in-depth understanding of place, the drivers behind thriving town centres, and the opportunities presented by social and technological change is therefore needed to develop robust business cases. MHCLG will assess bids firstly on a pass /fail basis through gateway criteria. Those that pass are scored according to value for money, strategic fit and deliverability – weighted 50%, 20% and 30% respectively What’s next for town centres? It’s easy in hindsight to criticise high streets for being slow to adapt to changing consumer needs. However, the rate of technological and social change has become much faster than ever before. The Internet has revolutionised shopping patterns and behaviours, prompted the demise of a good many retailers and with this, conventional thinking over high street representation. Town centres have always adapted and evolved, but they have seldom needed to do so at the pace required to meet the challenges they face today. Those high streets that lack a sense of experience and theatre, that retain a focus largely on retail, and that don’t entice people to reside and dwell in their midst, will lose out – as will the local communities and the businesses that they serve. Town centres have always adapted and evolved, but they have seldom needed to do so at the pace required to meet the challenges they face today. Despite some initial criticism that the £675 million Future High Street Fund was wholly insufficient to deal with the scale of the challenges, the government have since allocated substantially more funding and other measures such as the High Streets Task Force, the expansion of Business Rates Relief, and the relaxation of planning regulations. There is clear recognition of the problems: the challenge now is to convert these into opportunities, expedite the repurposing of town centres and make them more relevant to the communities they serve in a sustainable way.