Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Paragraph: 56
It remains the case that resilient, thriving high streets and town centres of the future...
Recommendation
It remains the case that resilient, thriving high streets and town centres of the future will be planned in the round in collaboration with local authorities, the business 68 Supporting our high streets after COVID-19 community (including Business Improvement Districts), property owners and the local community. Strategies for high streets and town centres should combine a mix of uses including housing, offices (including shared workspaces), retail, hospitality, leisure, arts and culture, healthcare, physical activity, green space, seating, and child’s play. These plans should be based on experiences and not just transactions, and be tailored to the needs and character of the individual area. Principles that local planners of high streets and town centres should explore include: creating experiences that cannot be found online; generating social value and not just economic growth; and supporting residents to move around because they want to, rather than because they have to. The Government should consider how these principles can be embedded within individual strategies for high streets and town centres across the country.
Paragraph Reference:
56
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government highlights in the National Planning Policy Framework the need for town centres to adapt and diversify to allow a more positive, flexible approach to changes in retail and leisure industries, planning for a suitable mix of uses which reflects their distinctive characters. It makes clear that planning policies should allocate a range of suitable sites in town centres to meet the scale and type of development likely to be needed, looking at least 10 years ahead. The Government has put great emphasis on the importance of design, where planning policies should ensure that developments make an efficient use of land, promote a mix of uses, enhance the natural environment and support local facilities and transport networks. In addition, the National Model Design Code sets out clear design parameters to help local authorities and communities produce design codes and decide what good quality design looks like in their area. These design codes will apply to new housing as well as wider regeneration opportunities that could form part of the renewal of a high street. As set out in the Build Back Better High Streets report the Government wants to go further and ensure that green infrastructure and public space improvements help level up our high streets. The new Levelling Up Fund and UK Community Renewal Fund provide an opportunity for places across the UK to bid for projects that can fund green infrastructure and improvements to public space and cycle lanes where this is likely to increase visitor numbers and contribute to successful high streets. This will be seen both through large-scale and structural improvements such as road improvements as well as through improvements on design, heritage and beauty, and communities will see the benefits of these investments on their high streets over the next few years. The government is working with local councils to make towns and high streets more competitive, and we want to increase green infrastructure, active travel, parking and accessibility.