‘High streets: Life beyond retail?’: House of Lords Built Environment Committee

Approximate read time: 15 minutes

In February 2024, the House of Lords Built Environment Committee launched an inquiry into how high streets could be regenerated and become more resilient and attractive. The inquiry set out to consider the different uses of high streets by various communities and businesses and identify what was essential for high streets to flourish economically and socially, including actions by government and local authorities.^[1] In November 2024, the committee published its report, ‘High Streets: Life beyond retail?’ (28 November 2024). The government responded to the committee in February 2025.^[2] The House of Lords is due to debate the committee’s report on 13 May 2025.

1. Committee’s findings

1.1  Background to the enquiry

High streets have faced several significant challenges in recent years, including the rise of online shopping, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the effect of inflationary pressures in changing consumer behaviour and raising operational costs for businesses, and competition from out-of-town shopping centres. According to the Centre for Retail Research, 38 major UK retailers went into administration between 2009 and 2019.^[3]. An investigation by BBC News found that between March 2020 and March 2022, there was a net loss of 9,300 retail outlets on high streets in Britain.^[4] More recent analysis by the consultancy firm PwC estimated a net loss of 2,284 outlets on high streets in the first half of 2024.^[5]

1.2 Committee’s conclusions and recommendations

The committee’s report acknowledged that high streets faced a challenging environment and that revitalising high street activity “would not be an easy task”.^[6] The committee concluded that the dominance of retail on high streets was likely in the past. While shopping would remain a key feature of high street activity, there was now greater demand and opportunities for restaurants and leisure activities, as well as for more public services, such as health centres and libraries, to play a bigger role in town centres. But notwithstanding challenges and the changing nature of the high street, in the committee’s view, the evidence presented in the report suggested “that there could be an optimistic and flourishing future for high streets”.^[7]

The committee’s recommendations were grouped under four headings and included:

Considerations for the modern high street

• avoiding a fixed vision and monolithic approach to the high street’s future, since what communities want and what can be sustained on the high street were constantly evolving
• ensuring people can get to high streets easily and safely through access by car and better public transport connectivity and offering sufficient parking
• continuing support to market traders from local authorities and other market operators
• ensuring decent public toilets are available and maintained on high streets

Responsibility for the high street

• Ensure local businesses support and are involved in high street regeneration projects and that local authorities empower and enable local business leaders to drive forward such projects.
• The government should support, but not mandate, Business Improvement Districts^[8] and consider whether the Business Improvement District model should be expanded to require the participation of community representatives beyond local business owners.
• Local authorities should ensure that their residents are involved in decision-making about their area through both formal consultations and partnership working.
• The government should ensure that accountability mechanisms involving members of the local community, such as towns boards, are part of any new programmes to support local regeneration.
• Anyone looking to reform high streets should involve the local authority at an early stage and develop a shared vision. Where a local authority is seeking to lead change it must work in partnership with landlords, business owners and the local community.

Policy levers

• The government should explore expanding the scope of Use Class E (a commercial class covering shops, offices, gyms, restaurants, workshops and other types of commercial buildings) or expanding another Use Class, to support the renewal of large shopping centres for other leisure purposes.
• The government should review the policy of expanding permitted development rights to convert Use Class E properties into homes to examine the impact this is having on high streets relative to the number and quality of new homes delivered.
• When approving new developments and considering how to regenerate their high streets, local authorities should ensure that they are complementary to and optimise the unique offering that high streets can bring to a community.
• As part of the review of business rates, the government should consider and simplify the range of business rates relief schemes available to ensure that they are effectively supporting successful high streets.
• The government should seek to legislate to allow markets operated by local authorities outside London access to the same level of business rates relief available to those markets operated by local authorities within London.
• The government should provide funding to local authorities to maintain an ownership and occupier database for commercial properties within areas designated a high street or major retail centre in their local plan.
• The government should support local authorities to make use of the new High Street Rental Auction powers and should confirm if it will follow the pilot approach set out by the previous government.
• Local authorities that already own assets on their local high street should ensure that they are being utilised to deliver the range of services and businesses wanted by local communities.
• The government should ensure that local authorities seeking to acquire new commercial properties in their local area have accessed the appropriate expertise and are able to effectively manage a commercial development portfolio.
• The government should set out whether they intend to encourage moving more NHS health services to the high street, and, if so, how they will do so. New public services including libraries, diagnostic centres and local government buildings should be located on the high street in the first instance.

Who pays?

• the previous government’s ‘funding simplification doctrine’ should be expanded to all local authorities in receipt of more than one funding stream seeking to revive high streets and town centres
• each local authority should have an active town centre manager to support the development of their high streets and town centres
• the government should invest in training and educating town centre managers, or other appropriate local authority staff, to ensure that every local authority has the required skills and expertise to provide tailored support to its own high streets
• any future programmes created as part of the local growth funding reforms should have a highly simplified bidding process

2. Reaction to the committee’s report

The committee’s report was welcomed by the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira), including its emphasis on empowering local leadership and simplifying funding mechanisms.^[9]

Bira’s chief executive, Andrew Goodacre, highlighted the report’s recognition that high streets require diversity and adaptability, often provided by independent businesses. He also supported the call for devolved funding and greater involvement of local business leaders in regeneration plans.^[10]

The Guardian thought the report, while being “honest” about the scale of the problem facing the high street, made for “refreshing reading”.^[11]

Lichfields, a planning and development consultancy, said that the recommendations set out in the report were “a (small) step in the right direction”. However, in Lichfields’ view, they might “not go far enough to address the societal, structural and market changes of retail and town centre markets”.^[12] Lichfields argued that, for example, certain business models prioritised sites with characteristics that are unlikely to be found in town centres and may be better suited on edge-of-centre or out of centre locations. Consequently, there needed to be flexibility built into a ‘town centre first’ approach.

3. Government’s response

The government published its response to the committee’s report in February 2025.^[13] The government said it was committed to rejuvenating town centres and high streets, pointing to measures such as high street rental auctions, alongside wider aims for devolution in England and raising local authority investment, in realising that commitment. The government said that it would “have more to say on these plans [for supporting high street rejuvenation] in the coming months”, implying that a fuller policy response was in development.^[14]

The government generally agreed with the committee’s recommendations. Plans for further devolution, coupled with an emphasis on local decision-making and financial support for local government backed initiatives, constituted the bulk of the government’s detailed responses to the recommendations.

The government also referenced its growth agenda in its response, pointing to the partnering of community and business involvement in regeneration policies including the Long-Term Plan for Towns^[15], High Street Accelerators^[16], and Community Right to buy^[17]

The government’s response to the report’s recommendations covered the following areas:

• Safe and easy access to the high street. The government agreed on the importance of public transport connectivity and safety, citing the extra spending it had announced on bus services and local transport networks. It said it was “determined” to drive up standards in the private parking sector to support access to town centres and high streets.^[18]
• Markets. The government agreed that markets could help to boost footfall on high streets and could often form an important part of the local economy. It was for local authorities and other market operators to make decisions in this area. The government’s provisional Local Government Finance Settlement and mandatory business rates relief such as Transitional Relief and Small Business Rate Relief could help support markets.
• Local business and regeneration. The government agreed that thriving businesses were essential for busy and successful local high streets and believed positive examples of collaboration between businesses, communities and councils demonstrated the benefits of well-managed local placemaking. The government said it was promoting this kind of collaboration through its support for the ‘Experience on Main Street’ programme^[19], the reformed Long-Term Plan for Towns programme, BIDs and the High Street Accelerator pilot, due to conclude in June 2025.
• Community impact. The government said that it intended to commence a package of plan-making reforms, enabled through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, in 2025. One aim of these reforms would be to improve the quality of community engagement in plan-making and introduce a greater focus on early engagement.
• Local authority partnerships. The government recognised that local authorities were key partners in high street regeneration and understood the importance of developing shared visions to revive these areas. This was reflected in the government piloting the High Street Accelerator model in 10 high streets in England.
• Local authorities and commercial property. The government currently had no plans to mandate local databases of commercial property ownership, but it said that local authorities should feel empowered to create such a database if they saw a benefit. The government supported a strong role for communities in ensuring valued local assets were maintained and put to good use. The English Devolution Bill would introduce a strong new Community Right to Buy for valued community assets.
• Local authority expertise. The government had made available funding of more than £1mn to support the implementation of the ‘High street rental auction’ policy.^[20] In relation to commercial property acquisition, the government did not think it appropriate to have a role in assessing the capability of individual authorities making such investments.
• Use classes and planning. In the government’s view, it was important to balance the flexibility for business owners and landlords to adapt buildings more quickly to changing consumer demands with the ability of local authorities to shape their areas and implement strategies for high streets. Therefore, it was not currently intending to expand Class E but would keep this position under review. It noted that the ‘National planning policy framework’ already strongly supported locating town centre uses in town centres.^[21]
• Business rates relief. The government was “committed to creating a fairer business rates system that protected the high-street, supported investment, and is fit for the 21st century”.^[22]. This would be a multi-year process.
• Public services and amenities on the high street. The government agreed that locating public services and amenities in town centres could support high streets. The 10-Year Health Plan included a physical infrastructure working group, which would look at issues such as integrating health facilities with high streets.
• Funding provision and simplification. The Funding Simplification Doctrine introduced in January 2024 committed all government departments to consider the principles of funding simplification when designing new funding exclusively for local authorities.^[23] The government said it remained committed to simplifying the funding landscape for local authorities and would continue to consider relevant feedback when thinking about new funding options.
• Town centre managers. The government said it recognised the importance of town centre managers. It wanted to rebuild local government to be able to support key staff, such as town centre managers, through fairer funding and multi-year financial settlements, to give councils the security they need.

4. Read more

• Myers Clark, ‘Six reasons behind the decline of the UK high street’, 14 December 2024
• Federation of Small Businesses, ‘The future of the high street’, August 2024

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Image by Mike Pennington on Wikimedia Commons