Just last week, it was revealed that Britain’s High Streets are under strain with the first half of 2016 experiencing 15 shop closures a day and the number of new openings falling to the lowest level for five years.
Could part of the solution towards reinvigorating our town centres lie in partnership working with town centre managers and local entrepreneurs with fresh ideas?
For many years high streets and town centres have acted as the lifeblood of our communities but as bad times hover, we need to be thinking about solutions and ways in which we can work to boost footfall, spend and dwell time more than ever. That’s easier said than done. Securing attention in the public policy arena, attracting funding and innovation and building partnerships to support reform and progress can often prove difficult.
A little over three years ago, we launched a programme called TestTown following research that found many town centres could face significant challenges unless they became more welcoming to new businesses, ideas, services, technology and customers.
Following a pilot programme in the Scottish town of Dunfermline in 2013, we have since gone onto with 19 different towns across the UK to encourage town centre managers and business improvement districts to allow young entrepreneurs to take up shop in vacant High Street units.
This resulted in the initiative becoming one of the UK and Ireland's biggest skills programme for town centre entrepreneurs. We supported hundreds of entrepreneurs and 117 new businesses, and 70% of candidates who took part in a TestTown event continue to trade today.
On the back of this success, today we are launching a new guide which will provide local authorities, councils and business improvement districts with a framework to help them host their own TestTown event. Everything from early planning and agreeing the format of the project, to the marketing of the event and how to generate support from local partners, has been covered.
The aim is to encourage town centres and young local entrepreneurs to work together to devise a regeneration plan which challenges an issue a particular town is experiencing, whether that be vacant unit space or low footfall. Devising a solution to benefit not only retailers but the wider town will help to attract partners and funding.
In the past we’ve worked with Huddersfield Council to develop their indoor youth market, ‘The Alternative Market' by using the TestTown model to offer the market stallholders the opportunity to trade out of Council owned vacant shops for a long weekend.
Our work with Enniscorthy council saw us support a longer-term training programme alongside a pop-up Christmas craft fair. The aim was to encourage people with arts experience to think about turning their skill into a business.
As well as the guide providing a structure for a TestTown event, we have also tried to outline some ideas to help contribute towards positive long-term outcomes for towns. These include every town thinking about having a permanent pop-up facility which offers flexible lease arrangements and towns considering reduced rates and rents for new traders.
With trading conditions across Britain’s High Streets expected to only get tougher in the coming year, stronger partnerships between town centres and local entrepreneurs will be critical in the long term rethinking of the High Street. If you’re looking at ways to help boost local business, then the new TestTown guide is a good place to start. We don’t expect that it’ll provide all of solutions but we hope that it’ll at least get the ball rolling!
Jim Metcalfe is leader of TestTown and head of development for the Carnegie UK Trust
