High street performance and evolution: a brief guide to the evidence

Abstract

This guide is a summary of the evidence on recent high street and town centre performance. It is designed to help those developing local policies and strategies for these areas.

British town centres and high streets have undergone dramatic change over the last decade. Few would dispute the combined impact of long-term shifts in policy, demographics and transport with the medium and shorter-term impacts of online retail and the shockwave of economic crisis on our high streets. But for those charged with understanding these changes more fully and coming up with effective responses, hard evidence is not always easy to come by.

Recognising this need, the Future High Streets Forum co-commissioned with the Economic and Social Research Council(ESRC) a study of the available evidence base, led by Southampton University and funded by the ESRC. Working with experts across the field, the Southampton study reviews what robust evidence is available on the trends impacting high streets and town centres, and provides a guide to how those trends have changed, and will continue to change, those vital commercial and social spaces. This will be invaluable for those developing local policies and strategies to sustain the economic health and vitality of town centres and high streets. The study also identifies the most significant gaps in evidence.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Neil Wrigley: orcid.org/0000-0002-3967-5668

Catalogue record

Export record

Altmetrics