Blueprint to ensure town centres of the future can thrive

A commission set up to advise how best to nurture the future of town centres across the Liverpool City Region has issued its first report, including several recommendations to foster a post-pandemic recovery.

The Town Centres Commission, the first of its kind, was set up by Liverpool Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram in January 2020 to investigate how to ensure a prosperous and sustainable long-term future for the city region’s town centres.

The independent commission, chaired by Sarah Longlands, revealed a vision where prosperous town centres would: Anchor social, cultural, and economic value to make them attractive, inviting and accessible for a diverse community; Belong to communities by providing a local focus in the city region and involving communities in how decisions about their town centre are made; and Connect people and places within and beyond the city region.

To achieve towns that anchor, belong and connect, the commission has set out recommendations including:

• Revenue investment that maximises the value of capital projects, to sustain them over time and let them develop and adapt to changing circumstances
• Encouragement and opportunities for creative and cultural businesses, social enterprise and diverse entrepreneurship, including small-scale grants and loans
• Innovation in funding, ownership, design and the use of space such as encouraging pop-up spaces for community activity, local businesses or public service delivery and ensuring vacant land is well managed and activated to contribute positively to town centres until its future use is decided
• Policymaking that puts people first in town centres – for example making health and wellbeing a key aim of policy, helping people to build skills for jobs in their local area, and giving local people more control over their town centre’s future through co-operative planning

Welcoming the report, Steve Rotheram, said: “Town centres and high streets are at the heart of our communities, providing a hub for people to meet, shop and socialise, but sadly too many have seen better days. In the aftermath of the last General Election, there was lots of attention lavished on towns, but we’ve not seen enough action from government to follow it up.

“When I launched this commission, I said that our economy, both regionally and nationally, would not thrive unless success was shared between our cities and our towns.

“Locally we’ve been investing in both the present and future of town centres. We’ve put tens of millions of pounds into town centres across the region from New Ferry and Bootle, to Kirkby and Southport.

“I launched a multimillion-pound town centre fund to help empower local councils to build the capacity to develop ambitious plans to invest in the regeneration of their high streets.

“I’m really grateful to everyone who has worked on the Commission to put together this report. We’ll be working to see how we can put its principles and recommendations into practice.”

Cllr Janette Williamson, Liverpool City Region portfolio holder for inclusive economy & third sector, said: “This is an important and timely report as, across the country, we think about how to secure a prosperous future for our town centres.

“There is a lot in this report to think about, both as a combined authority and as individual councils, as we look to future proof our town centres for the post-pandemic world.

“The pandemic has reminded us just how much we need to get together with friends and family and, working together with our partners, we can ensure that our town centres have a bright future as community hubs, where people can meet, socialise, access services, and shop.”

The work of the Town Centres Commission complements the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s £6m Town Centres Fund, which is enabling local authorities to come up with exciting ways to regenerate town centres across the city region.

The focus on town centres as community hubs is also aligned with the combined authority’s extensive engagement work to ensure that local communities are influencing its Spatial Development Strategy, which will shape how the city region develops for decades to come, an approach which was also used to develop the city region’s Local Industrial Strategy.

The Liverpool City Region’s Land Commission – England’s first – established by the Metro Mayor to review the use of public land for community wealth building, is also expected to publish its findings in the Spring.