The Voice of Authority - Tools for local authorities to support high streets

9 June 2020 Tools for local authorities to support high streets

In partnership with:

Post Webinar Report Tools for local authorities to support high streets 9 June 2020

In partnership with: Chair: Toby Fox Managing director, 3Fox Panelists Nabeel Khan

John Percy

Director of enterprise, jobs

Partner, Development and

and skills, London Borough

Valuation, Montagu Evans

of Lambeth

Sandra Perez Managing consultant, Inner Circle Consulting

OVERVIEW The discussion ranged widely and this report contains a sample and summary. Watch the webinar in full at thevoiceofauthority.co.uk, and subscribe to stay updated on future episodes.

Post Webinar Report DISCUSSION SUMMARY John Percy at Montagu Evans opened the discussion, sharing his insight and giving an overview of the state of the market. Rather than Covid-19 having caused the current problems facing high streets, he said: “The current hiatus has only accelerated changes which we’ve already seen taking place in urban environments across all use classes.” What is the investment market looking for? Percy added: “Well, a lot of things. It’s looking for low risk, it’s looking for high degrees of certainty. It’s looking for strong returns, and it’s looking for a favourable taxation position.” With things as they stand, none of those apply to our shopping centres and high streets.

The fundamentals that are going to drive the success of anywhere are that you’ve got good quality employments, you’ve got nice places to live, and you’ve got places that people aspire to be in.

John Percy

The only sector that has continued to thrive is warehousing and distribution, perhaps understandably given current dependence on internet sales. Percy expressed confidence that internet sales as a share of the market – currently at 30% will only continue to increase, even as high

streets begin to reopen. As a result of this, Percy thinks it is likely that we will see a reduced number of stores on the high street. In attempting to show support then for our high streets, one immediate change that could be made would be to address the state of the use classes order. “That’s a thing that we feel pretty strongly about, that the use classes order probably is no longer really fit for purpose within our town centres.” While Montagu Evans doesn’t advocate no controls, it would prefer to classify in a qualitative manner rather than doing so based on typology.

Nabeel Khan then gave a picture from on the ground, describing the situation that Lambeth currently faces. The data it has gathered does not make for pretty reading. “Nearly 10% of our residents are or may be unemployed by summer, and a fifth are currently furloughed.”

Post Webinar Report Compounding matters, these layoffs are expected to have an uneven impact across the workforce, as has the actual pandemic itself. Khan was clear on the point that Lambeth would not allow Covid-19 to further exacerbate any existing inequalities. Further to this, he was also eager to point out that recovery efforts as we emerge from the current crisis must be “greenled” and added: “We’re hoping to create hundreds of jobs and training opportunities around retrofitting, and around sustainable transport capital projects.” Lambeth likewise hope to use this as an opportunity to address the gender balance in sectors such as construction, and to invest in the foundational economy and roles that rely on human interaction, that will not be able to be automated in the future.

Town centre expert at Inner Circle Consulting, Sandra Perez, agreed that the present circumstances offer the opportunities for change. She spoke of some of the intervention packages that have been made available to local authorities, and advised on how they might best be used. In this regard, she advised local authorities to not rush into immediate interventions, instead cautioning them to think strategically and encouraged thoughts towards action plans and long-term thinking. When conversations shift towards the broader questions of climate change and skills and equality, the discussion on high street resilience follows naturally. Planning will be critical for flexibility of use. Perez explained: “We’ve seen in real time what an impact it’s had for businesses to quickly be able to shift into different ways of doing their business.” When it comes to present levels of footfall, areas delivering essential services have seen less fall off in footfall, while those areas providing for leisure or less essential services have seen the greatest drop-off - in some cases as much as 80%. Oxford Street has seen a 98% loss of footfall. This only serves to point to the importance of maintaining that diversity of use.

High streets function very much as the face of an area and as such for a place to be successful, it is important that its high street is flourishing. Perez added: “People’s perceptions about a place are heavily driven by the influences that they get in that area. Where you’ve got local authorities, which are working hand in glove with the private sector, those have tended to be

Post Webinar Report The process we’re following to arrive to the solutions is similar.

The solutions themselves aren’t.

Sandra Perez

the most successful places.” Khan was in agreement that this accordance between public and private sectors is instrumental for a place to thrive. Speaking on how Lambeth responded to Covid-19, one of the first

things it did was to set up a business task force, and to liaise with the seven BIDs located in the borough. This closeness of collaboration and communication have been crucial for Lambeth in its response, and coming out of the crisis now is something that the council wants to maintain.

Khan said: “I think the thing that I’m probably most proud of over the last twelve weeks is that we’ve formed a real relationship with our businesses through our business districts and our major investments that bodes really well for the recovery stage.” He also spoke of the learning opportunity that the crisis has provided for the council from a more introspective perspective. “[Councils] often get hammered for being these overly bureaucratic agencies, but actually, in a period of crisis, the way we were able to respond and very quickly streamline our decisionmaking and our outcomes process made it really, really easy to make certain decisions.”

Perez picked up on Khan’s point on how councils have an ability to act as a nexus point and to bring different partners together. This is something they can capitalise on to affect high streets positively. “There will be issues that some flag that you won’t be aware of until you come to implementation, so it’s how do you flag those things early on? A lot of that comes from just talking to each other.” Khan was eager that the council maintain and continue to implement the learning experiences that have come from this period. He said: “The practices we’ve embedded over the past twelve weeks, it has been a bit of a culture change. And it’s very difficult to reverse culture change…People are liking being involved in the co-design of solutions. I think it will endure.”

How then can local authorities best help their high streets as we move into recovery and the easing of lockdown sits on the horizon? Many local authorities have in recent years added

Post Webinar Report shopping centres to their portfolios. Percy advised against doing this in the instance where they might be cheap and easily acquired assets. Where this is done with a clear plan in mind and is part of a regenerative effort on the part of a council, Percy praised this as a “sensible and logical step”. Investments such as these should not necessarily be counted upon to provide a pure financial return, but can best help instead to add to the vitality of a place. There has of course been the shift to working from home, with many major employers in town centres likely to maintain these arrangements for the foreseeable future. For smaller towns and more residential areas, this might actually be a boon for their high streets, with people instead using local stores and spending more money in their own local area. Perez suggested the conversion of cultural assets that might have reduced occupancy during the day into workspaces, where people can meet to work and collaborate to help drive up footfall on high streets.

If an event like this doesn’t remind us of our own vulnerability I’m not sure what ever will, so we should actually use this as an opportunity, as a catalyst for change.

Nabeel Khan

On a final note, Khan raised the interesting point that councils could perhaps share assets to help ease the strain on public transport post-lockdown, and provide workspaces in places like libraries for a

workforce which is now far more agile and flexible than it was prior to the pandemic. “If you look at workflows, I live in North London, yet I’m commuting across the river, to Lambeth. What’s to stop me going to Haringey or Islington, one of their estates, one of their libraries? That’s an idea I would be keen to push. We shouldn’t be looking at this in terms of our own borough boundaries.” An interesting idea to finish the discussion, and a concept we will hopefully see further conversation on in a future webinar.

Post Webinar Report POLLS AND INSIGHT Is your council thinking about changes to planning regulations to accommodate new retail use?

Unsure - 75%

Yes, we have already rolled out new changes - 3 % Yes, new regulations are under consideration now - 11% No this is not on our radar - 11%

Do you think council regulations on use classes need to change?

Yes, they’re out of date and need to adapt - 79% No, they will be fine once the world returns to normal - 3% Unsure, need more data - 18%

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