The report “community-powered high streets” published by Power to Change makes an important and timely call for greater importance to be given to the role of community businesses in the revitalisation of our town and city centres. It sets-out to demonstrate “how community businesses will build town centres fit for the future”.
Not a how-to guide
If you are looking for a ‘how to guide’ to creating community-owned businesses in town centres, look elsewhere. The report community-powered high streets how community businesses will build town centres fit for the future does advocate that the “benefits of community-led high streets are clear to see”, without stacking-up much of the evidence in their favour. It tells us that community-owned spaces contribute a seemingly modest £220m to the UK economy, with 56p of every £1 they spend staying in the local economy.
I’d like to see accompanying documents go on to elaborate more about the reports claim that “these spaces provide affordable, appropriate services and products for the community”. And I’d like to see fuller examples of community enterprises that provide important services as community anchors and generate town centre footfall as key attractors.
Three of my personal favourite town centre community enterprises are the long established Number 8 Community Arts Centre, Pershore; The Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal and Galeri Caernarfon. All occupy iconic buildings that earn their keep within their towns; all are community-owned and managed; all provide a great service that helps bring the local town to life.
Timely lobbying document
What the community-powered high streets report does provide is a well-crafted and timely lobbying document aimed at influencing party manifestos and the policies of the “next government”. In doing so, it takes care to acknowledge the “remarkable similarity” between the current government’s proposals for High Street Rental Auctions (HSRAs) and Labour’s pledge to provide powers for local authorities to take over empty properties.
High Street Warning Lights
The report makes a big play on data produced by the Local Data Company that shows the 100 towns in England which have experienced the greatest increase in the persistent vacancy rate (percentage of properties vacant for more than three years), since 2015. With its penchant for an emotive phrase, the report names these towns the ‘High Street Warning Lights’.
The report targets proposed interventions to bring properties back into use through analysis that shows that almost two thirds of vacant units in the High Street Warning Lights are owned by limited or public limited companies. The subsequent suggestion being that that policy intervention to tackle persistent vacancies should be aimed at influencing the behaviour of those property owners in order to have the greatest impact.
With an eye to influencing party manifestos, the report’s analysis of the “100 High Street Warning Lights” shows that nearly half (46) also host the most ‘in play’ seats at the next election (where majorities are less than 10,000).
Political astuteness
In its political astuteness, the report acknowledges that when thinking about important issues affecting their local area, high streets and town centres are shown as the fourth most important priority for the public at 21%, behind cost of living (59%), NHS and healthcare (48%) and the economy (23%).
The report includes what I consider to be a partial review of current expert opinion and national/international approaches to high street renewal. Approaches assessed include Main Street; formula business restrictions; placemaking; commercial vacancy tax; alternative ownership structures. Whilst offering some helpful insights, this assessment of approaches serves as context to place recommendations about community enterprise within, rather than as a basis for determining the thrust of wider interventions.
Three core policies
The report concludes with three core policies and additional ideas for further exploration, to assist manifesto writers in including “community-powered high streets” in their proposed policies.
- The next government should introduce a National Community-Led High Streets Programme that consolidates learning from existing high street interventions and provides a platform for building local partnerships and creating a shared vision for high street transformation that is flexible to communities’ different challenges and needs.
- Central and local government should use their powers to create the conditions for more alternative ownership, such as community business or community development companies, on the high street, and mainstream alternative ownership and the role of the community developer into high street regeneration practice.
- The next government should consider how a targeted empty property premium on business rates for long-term vacant properties could provide an incentive for property owners to find new uses for vacant assets, while also generating income for local and central government to support other high street regeneration activities.
Alongside policy recommendations about the transfer of assets to community ownership, I’d like to see Power to Change and its partners sharing more of their undoubted knowledge about what is needed to support the creation and management of the businesses that will occupy the reopened buildings. The report’s recommendation and assessment about the evolution of a Community-Led High Streets Programme, I would take as a useful contribution to a wider discussion that needs to be held with practitioner-led organisations like the Institute of Place Management and the Association of Town and City Management.
