Centre for Cities calls for planners to swap high street shops for offices and resi

Think tank Centre for Cities’ report, supported by Capita, has revealed that Newport, Blackpool and Bradford lead the UK cities with the highest number of vacant shops at 24% of higher.

The report has made recommendations on the role of commercial space including wider interventions on skills and transport.

Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: “Each day seems to bring a new crisis for the high street, but the answer is not to double down on the declining retail sector. Instead, we need to reimagine struggling city centres as places where lots of different businesses can locate and create jobs – and where lots of people want to go to for a variety of reasons. This means reducing the reliance on shops, and focusing on creating a more attractive environment for a wider range of firms. We also need to make our high streets more open and appealing spaces for people to spend time or live in, by improving public realm and transport links, and potentially introducing more housing.

“Of course, repurposing high streets for other uses can be a difficult and costly process, and some cities will need investment from government to support that transition. But it will be crucial in transforming the fortunes of our city centres, and the prospects of people living or working in them.”

According to the report, in ‘successful’ city centres, offices make up almost two thirds of the commercial space and the average quality of this office space is better than in other cities. For example, in Bristol and Manchester, retail makes up about 18% of overall commercial space, and performs well because the large numbers of office jobs provide footfall for retailers to sell to.

In poorly performing city centres, offices account for less than a quarter of commercial space and the quality of this space lags behind that of more successful economies.

Giulia Bunting, planning director at GL Hearn, part of Capita Real Estate and Infrastructure, added: “The challenges facing our high streets and city centres are nothing new to those of us who work regularly in the retail sector. The need for strong, healthy town and city centres is clear, if they are to attract the footfall needed for our retail and leisure space to thrive.

“There is much that cities and the government can do to help support and bolster retail such as business rates reform. We should be levelling the tax playing field for physical stores and online operators as well as showing real leadership and support for the re-invention of places and introducing more flexible platform to harness new opportunities for regeneration.”