Regenerating our town and city centres: the more voices the better
14th April 2025
The challenges facing the traditional retail centres of towns and cities across the country are well known. We all recognise them when we see closing stores and increasingly empty high streets and shopping centres. First, out of town shopping played its part, then changing shopping patterns helped along by the rise of online shopping. We were talking about the decline of the high street long before the COVID-19 Pandemic accelerated these trends, changing the way we live, work and shop.
This matters because these urban centres and retail cores provide a focus for their surrounding area, economically and symbolically. They generate footfall to sustain local businesses and create jobs, as well as generating the business rates that contribute to council funding for local services. Instinctively, we also often see them as an indicator of the health and vibrancy of the place we live in and its outlook for the future.
Local authorities, who we tend to look to as the guardians or stewards of our local place, understand this well. In some of the areas worst affected by these trends, they often take much of the brunt of the disappointment, anxiety and anger that comes with closing department stores and boarded up shops. And so, while there is no statutory duty on a local authority to step in and purchase underperforming shopping centres and other assets, many have felt compelled to do just that.
This bold and decisive action is taken with a view to saving and breathing new life into the high street, repurposing or redeveloping these sites to put them back at the centre of their local economy and community. But the cost and risk involved in these decisions makes them controversial. In a context of local authority budgets being squeezed across the country, spending decisions and priorities are likely to come under intense scrutiny by residents with an eye on social media and the local press.
When taking the bold step of buying these assets, councils will be very aware that there is no template to follow and no obvious answers to the big question: In an age when we do much of our shopping elsewhere, what should our town centres be for? If retail isn’t enough, what else will bring the footfall that businesses need? Does the answer lie in housing, green spaces or flexible workspace? What role can leisure, entertainment and culture play? Can a food hall or new public green space really help to kickstart change?
In our experience, the answers to these questions are best explored and tested as part of a wider conversation with local communities, involving a diverse range of perspectives. The more voices you can hear the better – particularly from those who use these centres currently or would do in the future. Active travel campaigners, new parents, the elderly and disabled will have different perspectives on what makes a place truly inclusive, just as young people will have different priorities to their parents. Local councillors, businesses, charities, and groups interested in areas like culture and heritage will all shed light on what makes a place unique and how it could be more vibrant.
From Bootle and Bradford to Kirklees and Shrewsbury, Counter Context has supported local authorities and their development partners pursuing this type of urban regeneration through community engagement and consultation. While in one place, the interventions this engagement has helped to shape focused (initially) on a new public park, in another the focus has been on developing new homes to grow the residential community or creating a new cultural quarter. Alongside a new mix of uses like these, high quality and inclusive public realm is often a central part of plans to make places attractive and welcoming for everyone, particularly where a growth in residential town/city centre living is proposed.
The approach will be different in each place, responding to a unique set of local challenges and opportunities. But the wherever we’ve worked, we’ve seen a similar commitment from councils to working with local communities and other stakeholders to ensure the proposals are viable and supported in the long term. Extensive engagement also helps build and strengthen the partnerships that will underpin successful transformation, whether these are with landowners, Business Improvement Districts or local community groups.
This commitment to openness and partnership is the common thread in successful placemaking projects. After all, the reason bold and visionary proposals for our town and city centres come under such scrutiny is also the biggest asset in driving forward change: we all care deeply about the places we live in and want to help bring out the best in them.
