The main thoroughfares of historic town centers throughout the United Kingdom must adapt to survive.
The “High Street” — the common name for British towns’ focal point of pedestrian retail stores and entertainment — has suffered in the last 20 years due to the growth of online shopping, tighter parking restrictions, increased business rates and, more recently, higher levels of inflation.
At their best, High Streets have thriving businesses and steady foot traffic. Traditional British pubs — some with lodging accommodations — are at the heart of the U.K. High Street, and hotels are also vital neighborhood components.
But as High Streets lose traction and suffer from neglect and reduced foot traffic, they become less attractive to investors.
The United Kingdom government’s “levelling up” policies aim to allocate funds to increase investment in towns and cities outside of London, but key stakeholders said these policies and strategies must be ongoing.
In September 2023, the U.K. government announced endowment-style funding to 55 “left behind” towns valued at £20 million ($25.4 million) each over a 10-year period. Since that announcement, the number of cities eligible for funding has increased to 75, said Catherine Palmer, director of regeneration delivery at construction consultancy Walker Sime, who spoke during a webinar hosted by the Westminster Social Policy Forum.
To be eligible for these funds, British towns and cities must establish a town board “to bring together community leaders, employers, local authorities and the local [Member of Parliament] to deliver the long-term plan for their town and put it to local people for consultation,” Palmer said.
Malcolm Tait, professor of planning at University of Sheffield, said long-term planning is critical in these decisions.
“A strategic vision of how money is to be spent is required around environment, community and people,” he said.
Peijie Wang, professor of finance at Plymouth Business School, said High Streets are singular places that should be treated as such.
“The community must understand that the long-term effects will be beneficial. This has to be communicated very well. How little time we have spent talking about people, rather than about the bricks, mortar and architecture. The balance now has to be right,” he said.
Many U.K. towns that would benefit from the funding suffer from a “lack of hope for job prospects, low aspiration, a lack of role models and a lack of training and support,” Palmer said.
Jacob Young, Member of Parliament and parliamentary under-secretary of state, Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, said in a recorded message shown during the webinar that 170 High Streets have benefited from £830 million ($1.05 billion) of government funds and £4.8 billion of levelling-up funds.
In October 2023, the U.K. government canceled one of its key levelling-up policies: the extension and expansion of the High Speed 2 rail network between Birmingham and Manchester. The project was billed as one of the major strategies for addressing an imbalance between London and the rest of the U.K., specifically by better connecting the northern region of the country.
Opening Up Auctions
Another piece of the U.K. government's plan to restore town centers is through High Street Rental Auctions. As part of its Levelling Up & Regeneration Act and set to become law in September, this legislation allows local authorities to target “high vacancy rates [that] significantly impact a place’s economic performance by reducing footfall. Areas of high vacancy … often have higher unemployment rates,” according to an official outline of the bill.
Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality — the hotel and pub industry’s principal membership organization — said the auction initiative can provide a major boost to British High Streets.
“Proposals to allow vacant properties to be brought into use via auction will create opportunities for hospitality businesses to move into High Streets, generating local investment and creating places where people want to live,” she said. “I’m pleased that protections for pub sites have been addressed and this will help protect the cultural and historic role pubs play in our society.”
Many hoteliers also have asked for a fundamental reevaluation of the system of business rates — local taxes based on businesses’ ratable values — which they largely say is more onerous on hotels and restaurants than for other businesses that even have the same square footage.
Andrew Goodacre, CEO of the British Independent Retailers Association — which has a membership of approximately 4,000 businesses — said many of his members pay exorbitant tax levels and require relief, which is a sign that the system is flawed.
“It inhibits investment. The tax is not fit for purpose. We need boldness, courage, but there is the feeling the government does not have a reliable alternative at the moment,” he said.
Initiatives around business-rate reform have been “kicked into the long grass until next year. … We need a system where landlords and tenants both succeed,” Goodacre added.
Neat Streets
The new High Street is one that is attractive to multiple generations, contains a variety of business types, is accessible and maintains standards, panelists said.
“Well-maintained places are crucial,” Goodacre said. “One of my bugbears is accessibility, such as poor car parking and pedestrianized areas that are not part of a plan. A drive for sustainability is good, but if you move cars without a cohesive plan, that is a recipe for disaster.”
Tait said the COVID-19 pandemic changed investors' attitude toward risk.
“It also had an effect on what we want in our High Streets in terms of cultural experiences,” he said.
He added there is a dire need for a “better quality of transportation” throughout the U.K.
Hotels and High Street business investment might well be attracted to several types of town rejuvenation, panelists said. These cities need to be connected enough to a transport hub but also retain those characteristics that show historical and listed buildings of architectural importance.
Rick Lawrence, partnerships director at LCR Property, said his organization was partly responsible for the regeneration of London’s Kings Cross rail station area.
Public-private partnerships have been successful in regenerating transport hubs “that so often lead to improvements in High Streets,” he said.
He added the process was one of “perseverance and patience, which is not always compatible with government timelines.” A 10- to 15-year timeline is the norm, while governments by law need to hold an election every five years.
Robert Lloyd Sweet, senior policy adviser of Historic England, said his goal is to protect the heritage of High Streets while avoiding what he called “Disney-fication.”
He gave one example of a successful regeneration project in the Somerset town of Weston-super-Mare. He said the focus in the town generally falls on its seafront, but it was decided that the available funding instead be earmarked for its High Street.
“We saw it was the architecture of between 1920 and 1969 that lagged behind. The town was heavily bombed during World War II. More than half of the available levelling-up funds of £19.9 million went to the town center, where for six years nothing had been spent,” he said.
Carl Smith, councillor of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said his town of Great Yarmouth on England's east coast near Norwich is another example, which benefited from £13.7 million from the Future High Street Fund, £20.1 million from the Town Deal Fund and $20 million from the Levelling Up Fund.
He said the updates to Great Yarmouth's High Street are scheduled to finish by March 2025, at which point the town will become a university town, home to a campus of the University of Suffolk.
“Footfall has increased 70%,” Smith said.
Smith said he hopes these improvements will attract hotels and other businesses.