Decline of West Midland towns to be tackled in new strategy

PLANS to stop the decline of Midland town centres are to be unveiled by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).

The ‘Town Centres Programme’ will initially focus on the regeneration of five town centres in the West Midlands.

The five pilot areas will be revealed by the WMCA later this week.

In a report the WMCA said: “There is no shortage of studies, assessments and reports identifying the deep seated structural and cyclical problems affecting the UK’s town centres and high streets.

“Existing centres are often based around their retail offer making them vulnerable to changes such as the increase in online shopping, out of town retail and changing consumer habits. This in turn manifests itself as vacant units, low end retail occupiers and areas of decline making town centres less attractive as an investable proposition.”

The report outlines a number key themes which it says apply most town centres. These are:

That too many centres rely too heavily on retail, with online shopping taking potential customers away. Centres need to diversify their of to role to become community hubs, incorporating residential, cultural, educational, leisure, business and health uses, as well as retail.

Many centres suffer from a poor built environment which is too often focused on allowing people to travel through efficiently, rather than encouraging them to say.

Not enough centres have embraced technology. Consumers increasingly expect data and technology to be integrated into their day to day experience including broadband, wifi, artificial reality, smart technology and future innovations.

Many centres have land ownership issues, either with multiple ownership of land, making interventions difficult or with investment priorities not always in the interests of local communities.