The Streets Ahead report published by the Royal Society of Public Health seeks to provide guidance and recommendations for “building health on the high street”. As a specialised report, it is remarkably striking in the synergy it shows with wider approaches to revitalising town and city centres.
The steps that the Streets Ahead report by Royal Society for Public Health proposes to help make high streets healthier places, have a remarkable synergy with the Revitalising Town Centres Toolkit prepared by People & Places for the Local Government Association. Like our toolkit, the key first step is creating an evidence-based and community-led plan for change, that is followed by practical steps akin to our guidance on planning and property; travel, parking and access; streetscape and public realm; business support and diversification.
Steps towards healthy High Streets
- Community empowerment: A local community – including the public, businesses, and local authorities – empowered to shape their high street, supported by the powers to enact changes, is vital to securing positive outcomes
Get there
- Transport links: Strong public transport links help bring people into town centres and boost their connectedness
- Inclusive design: Making it easy for everyone to get around through the design of the streets means that nobody is prevented from accessing the high street
- Safety: People do not just want their high streets to be free of crime, but perceive clean high streets as being safer and more accessible
Be there
- Retail: High quality retail, selling the products that people want, remains a key driver of footfall and ensures people are accessing other services
- Social spaces: Whether this is pubs, cafes, or community centres – third spaces play a vital role in facilitating social connections and improving people’s wellbeing
- Health services: Providing access to health services – whether that is a GP, pharmacist, or dentists – ensures that people can get support with their health, and draws them to the high street
Stay there
- Healthy food: People need and want to be able to make healthy choices – ensuring high streets offer these both encourages the use of high streets, and healthy behaviours
- Green spaces: Adequate provision of green spaces – even small ones – encourages exercise, and has improves people’s mental wellbeing
- Supportive work: Those working on high streets spend the most time there – the jobs available should encourage them to be healthy and support others to do the same
Policy recommendations
The Streets Ahead report also contains broad policy recommendations that would not look out-of-place in a regional, economic developmement plan.
- Action plans: Local authorities should publish high street action plans with a point of contact to implement the Healthy High Streets Framework.
- Statutory duty: Government should legislate for a statutory duty on other bodies to cooperate with local authorities in creating healthy high streets
- Regeneration outcomes: Developers should consider health outcomes as well as economic outcomes when putting together proposals for regeneration.
- Staff support and training: Businesses and the government should consider offering further training and support for staff working on the high street
- Equalising on-street and on-line tax: Government should equalise the tax burden between in-person and remote retailers, using the dividends from this to fund improvements to our high streets.
The Streets Ahead report can be read in conjunction with our analysis of different strands of national place-based policy that we call the place policy puzzle. The report’s publication aligns with our assertion that policy interventions such as the “Trailblazer Neighbourhoods” programme are targeted at ‘people in place’ , and that place management practitioners and local community engagement, need to adapt accordingly.
