Britain’s high street “is not dead” and struggling town and city centres could be transformed by becoming industry hubs instead of places to shop, according to new research refuting claims that a crisis in bricks-and-mortar retail is killing then off.
The Centre for Cities, an independent think-tank, said on Tuesday that local councils should shift town centre economies away from an “overreliance on retail” towards high-skilled industry, and said the belief that high streets were “dying” was misplaced.
In a report written in partnership with George Capital, the property fund manager, the think-tank said policymakers could save struggling town centres by increasing investment in jobs and skills, and outlined a series of proposals to boost footfall on high streets.
