High Streets: Life Beyond retail? is the product of an inquiry by the House of Lords' Built Environment Committee into the future of high streets in a period of "changes in trade, retail, technology and society", notably the growth of online and out-of-town shopping.
Its recommendations for adaptable, resilient high streets include several relating to the planning system:
Despite the challenges identified in the report, Lord Moylan, the committee's chair, stressed that the outlook was positive. He said that for more than 1,000 years high streets have been through periods of change, but they had responded well to what has been "quite rapid change" in recent years.
He added: "If you think of the high street as retail, then obviously it suffers".
"If you think of the high street as a flexible sort of structure responding to changing circumstances, it's responded generally quite well. There are parts of the country and cities where we see abandoned shops, but that’s not really the story of the high street generally. That's perhaps a story of innovator decline. Generally speaking, high streets have flourished, but in a very different way".
The report, initiated in February 2024, is the culmination of months of evidence gathering with high street stakeholders, including seminars with students. Divided into five chapters, it addresses:
"Retail will always remain a vital component of the high street but local communities are increasingly seeking out restaurants and leisure activities as well as wanting to see more public services in their town centres. Those places that have adapted in response, for example by moving local libraries into vacant department stores or by opening high street diagnostic centres, are leading the way for the future of high streets across the country. Variety, both within the retail offering and beyond, will aid recovery now and is key to ensuring the long-term resilience of high streets into the future".
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