You want healthier high streets? Then maybe think twice before publishing a report about “Ghost Towns”

Perpetuating the one-sided and damaging ‘ghost town’ narrative… acts only to feed tabloid clickbait and drive visitors and investment away.

Graham Soult

Thank you to The Northern Echo for giving me the opportunity to offer an alternative take on high streets, in light of a presumably well-intentioned but unhelpful new report on “Ghost Towns” this morning.

The Sun, Mirror and Daily Mail, as you would imagine, are already lapping up its conclusions and raiding their archives for the most depressing high street pictures they can find.

Naïve

When you write and publish a report like this, you are naïve if you can’t predict by now exactly what the press will do with it – in short, use it to clobber the places where people and businesses are already working hard to deliver positive change.

In what scenario is that a constructive contribution to addressing the challenges you claim to be concerned about?

Response

The Northern Echo used a decent chunk of what I submitted yesterday in response to seeing a preview of the press release and report, but here, for completeness, are my remarks in full.

“It is unfortunate that a report that argues for “decisive action to reverse decline” on the high street risks having the exact opposite effect by perpetuating the one-sided and damaging “ghost towns” narrative that acts only to feed tabloid clickbait and drive visitors and investment away.

“Even despite all the challenges, we continue to see good-quality independent and national businesses opening, and seeking space, in the region’s town and city centres. We need people to discover and support those brilliant businesses, not more headlines that tell everyone how awful everywhere is.

“The trends that the report highlights are already widely known and recognised. That’s why local place leaders on the ground, in this region and beyond, are already working hard to tackle those issues and help facilitate the very change that the report’s authors advocate.

“Indeed, the recently published High Streets Task Force final report, drawing from work with 149 English high streets over the last five years, offers a practical framework for how we achieve that positive change, by investing in place management, building long-term local partnerships, improving the physical experience of our town centres, and supporting strong place leadership.

“The Task Force’s work has already influenced national policy, including the High Street Accelerators pilot and the £1.5 billion Plan for Neighbourhoods, which includes seven North East towns, and I hope the North East Mayor’s new High Streets Commission will also draw from and amplify these learnings.

“As I always argue, it is hard to create the mix of businesses you want in a town centre when who occupies the properties is in the hands of private property owners, and very rarely the local council. However, that’s why my Retail Cupid work, in places like Durham, is important and valuable, helping to match up the retail, hospitality and community uses that we want with the premises that can accommodate them.

“It is particularly disappointing that the report does not provide a platform to celebrate case studies of the good practice it is pushing for. From Durham’s recently opened LGBTQ-friendly café 3 of Cups – which has transformed an old William Hill bookmakers into a warm and welcoming space – to the wonderful Two Tales pop-up by Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books, which brings reading and creativity to the high street, our region is awash with examples of people bringing inclusivity, joy and pride to the places they care about.

“The question we need to be asking is how we can all work together to make even more of that good stuff happen.”