The Association of Town Centre Management (ATCM) is Europe’s largest membership organisation dedicated to promoting the vitality and viability of town and city centres. As footfall slumps, retail vacancies are soaring and investment ceases, and town and city centres are facing major challenges to be considered now in advance the recovery from recession.
Mr. Quin said that the current recession had seen a return to the concern expressed in the early 1990s about town centres becoming ghost towns as retailers cut back on their operations or, worse, were driven into receivership. This prompted a change of approach towards the concept of Town Centre Management, bringing together the respective resources of local government and the private sector to stimulate town centre revivals.
Initially the impact of Town Centre Management was little more than cosmetic, both retailers and developers being too remote from the process. The key change came with the introduction of PPG6, which opened the way to better, more effective town centre planning and management. (PPG6, through a sequential test, gave priority to the expansion of town centres at the expense of out-of-town developments.)
While post PPG6 there has been a renaissance in town and city centres, the principal criticism has been that town centres have now begun to look too alike ("Ghosts to Clones"), with national chains dominating the high streets and with too little exposure to locally owned retailers. Mr. Quin said that the reality was that consumers did want the familiarity of the national chains and there was insufficient demand to support more than a limited number of locally-based retailers.
Reducing the "sameness" of town centres and encouraging a more distinctive look for high streets was the challenge for the future, to create individual "brands". A lead could be taken from work done in downtown Washington DC, not historically a major retail destination but more residential-oriented. With the support of the US equivalent of the Association of Town Centre Management a programme was instituted to bring in shops and customers to the area as a destination worth visiting. Sampling of visitors has shown that area had moved up in popular esteem from "An experience worth having" to "A remarkable experience".
Mr. Quin suggested that creating such a judicious mix of residential and retail in downtown areas should be a good model for the future for the UK, given the problems being faced by retailers in the current straitened times. There are currently 135,000 vacant shops in the UK, 15% of the totality in the larger towns and cities and as much as 25 to 30% in smaller locations. In consequence just about all major developments in the planning stage are now on ‘hold’ pending a return to better times in retailing.
However, the future should not be about simply replicating more of the same by way of the shopping experience. Rather, the advent of the recession should be seen as a great opportunity to get away from the now prosaic and to create "remarkable" shopping experiences, Washington DC-style.
The basis would be to obtain the right mix between residential and retail, capitalising at least in part on revitalising town centre living at the expense of the suburbs and encouraging greater use of public transport instead of cars. The streets would be purposely friendly, some as though gardens, others perhaps covered.
In the residential/retail mix the greater residential content might mean somewhat fewer and possibly smaller outlets, this smaller scale opening the way to the return of local independent retailers, including specialist, even “quirky” shops. This could also support the need for more food stores.
There could be greater flexibility in shop opening hours to reflect disparate lifestyle issues. For example, younger residents will be likely looking for shops, restaurants/cafés and entertainment centres available throughout most of the evening, such that the hours operated by some outlets might have a distinct bias towards later opening and closing hours.
Developing new style downtowns will take time – perhaps 15 years - but will be much aided by the creation of the National Skills Academy for Retail. While it remains uncertain how far people would be willing to travel to a successful new local downtown, the likelihood is that it would be a magnet for outside shoppers.
Among the wider social issues to be considered is the changing population mix, with not only an increasingly percentage of the elderly but also a growing immigrant population. The new style downtowns have to be able to accommodate such differing lifestyle needs. For example, Muslim youths, teetotal, do not wish to have to share evening social space with drunken native teenagers.
Mr. Quin stressed that while he is optimistic about new downtowns, the initial process could be painful for developers, property owners and retailers alike. In June next year there is to be in London a World Congress on World Centres and Downtowns with widespread interest already and a prospective attendance of between 800 and 1,000 people.
In the Q & A session that followed Mr. Quin’s presentation he offered the following observations:
- A change of government next year, from Labour to Conservative, would certainly bring a different approach to planning, although the precise direction remains unclear. To the extent that Conservative policies can yet be influenced, the message to the Tories should be to maintain focus on town centre revival and on advancing public transport.
- The recent paper from the Adam Smith Institute arguing for getting rid of the Use Class Order was to be welcomed. Local authorities tended to be too restrictive and inflexible to change, seeking to discourage tenants such as banks and dentists on the grounds they did not fit in with the planning "vision", whereas there was clearly a need for such tenants in shopping areas.
- Market towns have been surviving the recession better, but conceptually they are already close to being downtowns.
- The growth in the Muslim community has led to ghettoisation in some areas, which has to be a matter of concern to be resolved. In Bradford one third of shoppers never go into the town centre, preferring their own local shops, but town centres should be welcoming to all.
Robert Gibson, Chapter Director, on behalf of the Scribe.