Focus on the West Midlands

By working with partners to make town centres more attractive to visitors, councils can help to combat the worst effects of the recession, writes Cllr Philip Parkin (Con) of Birmingham city council

With the worst set of retail results for more than a decade, a string of high profile stores collapsing into administration and empty shop units becoming a depressingly familiar sight on the high street, this is a bleak time for our town centres. Cash strapped shoppers and heavy discounting mean that many stores are suffering the double whammy of falling sales and reduced margins. Increasingly, however, the public and private sectors have been coming together to take a coordinated, proactive approach to making their town centres more attractive to visitors. Simon Quin, the chief executive of the Association of Town Centre Management, believes that such initiatives are more vital than ever as the high street struggles with the effects of a severe recession.

Partnership work

“The credit crunch and ensuing economic crisis mean many town centres are facing a difficult future,” he says. “There will be winners and losers out of this, however, and our experience shows that the winners will be those who bring relevant stakeholders from across the centre together to work on a shared programme of initiatives. “Now is definitely the time to put the town centre first and ensure councillors work in partnership if you want the centre to survive and prosper in the future.” Although some town centres have voted to become business improvement districts (BIDs), partnerships do not have to be as structured, or as costly, as BIDs, and most of the 500 in place across the UK do not follow this format. Typically a partnership will have key representatives from business and the local council, as well as services such as the police, getting together to agree priorities and take action. Initiatives include making their areas safer and cleaner, running professional marketing campaigns and events, and encouraging inward investment.

Birmingham city council, like many across the country, is currently supportive of the whole concept of town centre management. The city’s local centres’ strategy, drawn up last year acknowledges the success of town centre management in its city centre, and encourages the extension of this approach across Birmingham. Eight local centres in the city already have some kind of town centre initiative in place. And the evidence suggests that they are making a difference with the more established partnerships bringing real benefits to local people and businesses, as well as helping to safeguard jobs and bring in investment. The result, in each case, is a safer, more attractive retail environment.

Across the city, town centre partnerships are:

•  running events, for example for Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day;
•  helping to make their areas safer – one retail manager for example, is introducing a retail crime initiative in partnership with local businesses and the police;
•  helping to improve their local environment by communicating with ‘one voice’ to the council and identifying priorities. Many partnerships in the city are working to develop the green spaces in their centres as well as working with the council to improve street cleaning and recycling facilities;
•  marketing, promoting and raising the profile of their areas – for example by setting up their own websites and producing customised guides for visitors and web links and newsletters for businesses.

While public sector support is a key part of any town centre management initiative, only the strong involvement of local businesses will ensure that a partnership works. And if town centres benefit from a coordinated and proactive approach, and become more attractive places for visitors to shop and spend money, then businesses across the country will benefit too.