A new report prepared by Developing Consensus’ member, Lichfields, has identified the ‘innovative strategies’ Northern towns can draw upon, in order to revive struggling town centres.
The study, titled ‘Moving on up? Levelling-up town centres across Northern England’, recognises that in addition to responding to the pandemic, town centres continue to face a number of significant challenges, such as the growth in online retail, competition from out-of-town shopping centres, the burden of disproportionate business rates, and changing consumer habits.
However, with this in mind, the report goes on to identify the wide range of development activity being planned to help town centres respond to these challenges, and the scale of Government funding that has been committed to help drive change.
“This is an important publication and comes at a time of seismic change for thousands of struggling town centres.
“However, there are many positives on the horizon and our research points to a strong, vibrant and successful future for those towns that take advantage of the funding streams and pursue exciting and innovative strategies designed to transform the heart and soul of our high streets.”
Jonathan Wallace, Lichfields