What do we mean by the crisis on the high street? We know that scores
of retailers have disappeared and thousands of shops closed. But is
this dire scene the whole picture? Do we understand why some places are
doing well while others have been devastated? Why initiatives in one
place work while the same strategy elsewhere has no effect? Is it
because some retailers have failed to adapt or is the high street itself
the problem?
There is no shortage of suggestions about what we might do:
environmental works, traffic calming, environmental improvements, better
promotion and animation, pop-up retailers have all been set out in good
practice guides. But before we prescribe the medicine we should take a
little more time to make sure we have the right diagnosis. The high
street is not a homogeneous place and the aim of this research will be
to understand it a little better.
We will do this by studying one hundred high streets, including big
cities, smaller cities, large towns, small towns and suburban centres as
well as out-of-town centres and online retailers. In doing so we will
analyse data to understand the cold, hard facts, but will also look for
the stories – the people who have made a difference and the initiatives
that have worked.
Many of these stories go beyond what can be captured in best practice
guides. You can’t write a policy that will magic into existence an
extraordinary community activist or a creative entrepreneur. But their
stories can inspire and show that change is possible and that there is a
future for our high streets. Our aim is to do this by narrating the
tales of a hundred high streets.
