How has the High Streets Task Force fared?

COMMENT Harold Wilson said: “A week is a long time in politics.” But, notwithstanding the fact that it was a big chunk of change during Liz Truss’ ill-starred premiership, in real estate, things move at a more glacial pace. Large mixed-use developments can sometimes take more than a decade to gestate. It is perhaps no surprise that some of the most disastrous shopping centre developments of the last decade were conceived prior to the global financial crisis, with sunk-cost fallacy and misplaced momentum. This delivered town centres that lacked the resilience to carry them through the challenge of first the internet and then the Covid-19 pandemic. At four years old, the High Streets Task Force is a mere toddler, but with one year left of the programme, it is perhaps timely to reflect on what has changed, what our experts have learnt and to ask you, the industry, what next? A challenging few years Retail’s woes predate Covid-19, with the pandemic accelerating the challenges, evidenced by the task force being set up in 2019, in response to Sir John Timpson’s 2018 report. The goal was to add capacity, expertise, collaboration and information to local place leaders by parachuting a selection of more than 100 experts into 150 locations over a five-year period. Place-based interventions were somewhat compromised by lockdowns, and it is a credit to the executive team that they were able to provide invaluable advice and support to government during the pandemic and then reanimate the programme to be in a position to bring help to well over 100 places by June 2024. In addition to the expert programme, the task force has regularly convened the Sector Leaders Group, directing the voice of the leading industry bodies to senior civil servants. I have been proud to chair a board of leading placemaking individuals. Working together, we have helped to ensure the effectiveness of the executives and experts in delivering the programme, as well as empowering me to be a sometimes-critical friend of politicians and policymakers as government thinking on high street matters evolves. Looking back Clearly, four years ago, nobody anticipated the pandemic, but it is also fair to say that current areas of focus, such as the road to net zero or impact investing, were not widely recognised in the industry either. The task force has reacted to these issues and others through the makeup of the board and changes to the expert programme. With 12 months to run, EG has been kind enough to invite our board members to reflect on what we have learnt over the past four years and, through the lens of their domain expertise and experience, reflect on what the future holds. Over the next 12 months, you will hear from diverse voices, such as Portland Design’s Ibrahim Ibrahim and Sefton Council’s Natalie Solaru. What happens next? Our high streets continue to deserve the support of central government and I am confident that a case can and will be made to whichever government is in power from 2024 for newly-scoped resource to promote the best practice in local placemaking through inspiring leadership and effective partnership. The board and I, with the help of EG, hope this 12-month series of articles will develop a debate to help inform what a successor to the task force might look like. Experience tells us that we would be mad to predict what challenges and opportunities will present themselves in the second half of the decade, but by starting the conversation now, we should be best placed to recommend a framework for high streets for the next five years. Mark Robinson is chair of the High Streets Task Force and co-founder of Ellandi Image © Ellandi