One year ago, the Portas Review of the high street echoed our vision that the high streets of the future should be ‘multifunctional social centres, not simply competitors for stretched consumers’. The response to the review I coordinated last year was collaborative, and those of us who compiled it believe a positive future for our […]
Inspiration of the month: Offshoots, Burnley
June 18, 2012 by
Eighteen months ago Gillian Newlove struggled to leave her house. Her confidence was at rock bottom and she did all she could to avoid meeting people. Last Christmas couldn’t have been more different. Her paintings were exhibited at Accrington Town Hall, she met the mayor and visitors were enquiring about buying her work. The change […]
Can social landlords be agents of local economic change?
May 9, 2012 by
A few years ago the Joseph Rowntree Foundation produced a report entitled Person or place-based policies to tackle disadvantage? Not knowing what works. The title was a fitting, if depressing, summary of more than two decades of research and practice. The current government has decided that the answer to this conundrum is to stop looking […]
Ten questions every town team should ask
February 2, 2012 by
The recent Portas Review of the high street set out 28 recommendations to revitalise our town centres, number one of which was to set up ‘town teams’ to bring together different stakeholders into a single management team. While Mary Portas described this as ‘getting our town centres running like businesses’, she meant something much bigger […]
A warm welcome for the Portas Review
December 13, 2011 by
The producers of the ‘21st Century Agora’ white paper warmly welcome the Mary Portas review of the high street as a real opportunity to inject new thinking into our struggling town centres and create places where people can thrive and flourish. Our input into the review was described by Mary Portas as ‘inspirational and invaluable’ […]
Let’s hear it for the Queen of Shops
December 12, 2011 by
On a sleety December day in Wakefield or Wigan, Weston-super-Mare or Wisbech, a walk down the high street amid hard-up Christmas shoppers is a long way from most people’s idea of a good time. Today Mary Portas, TV’s Queen of Shops and the retail guru appointed by David Cameron to revive our high streets, is […]
Inspiration of the week: South London’s urban forest
November 14, 2011 by
Hidden from incessant passing traffic at the busy south London junction of Elephant and Castle is an unusual urban forest. It’s a haven for wildlife and a home for 450 mature trees, planted 40 years ago when the Heygate Estate was built as affordable housing for local people. Now, after a long and acrimonious campaign […]