Civic High Street Collective
We’re bringing partners together to champion a mixed-use, civic model where high streets are reimagined as places for local services, heritage and culture, community and housing.
High streets can once again be bustling centres of civic life – places of connection and local pride.
Across the country, there are communities reimagining high streets in this way. They’re not accepting the inevitability of shuttered shops and decline. In place of disempowerment and damaged local pride, they’re giving local people a say, and turning vacant spaces into centres for public services, culture, community, and housing.
Every high street could be like this, but too often, the outdated retail-led model stifles and slows community efforts, as power and wealth flow to distant markets that no longer serve local needs.
A different model has emerged: a mixed-use civic high street shaped by communities and designed for long-term resilience. One filled with businesses that contribute to the social and economic well-being of the communities they serve. Employing locally (81% of community-owned businesses’ staff are local) and trading locally (51% of their suppliers are local), laying the foundations for economic growth.
Now is the time to realise this model nationwide. Visible, tangible change is possible. Footfall can return to local shops and hospitality, and connected neighbours can shape where they live.
Partners
This Day
Funder of the Collective
Royal Society of Arts
Member of the Collective
Institute of Place Management, Manchester Metropolitan University
Member of the Collective
Building on innovation
Across the public, private and civil society sectors, there is a pipeline of practical ideas and delivery models to drive civic high street innovation.
From our High Street Buyout Fund proposal, to models of community-led regeneration like Platform Places and our recent Community-led High Street Innovators project.
The Architectural Heritage Fund’s Heritage Development Trust model has revived ’ at-risk’ heritage buildings in all corners of the country. And there are public sector approaches like Barnsley’s health-on-the-high-street hub and South Shields’ further education campus, as well as commercial transformations like LGIM’s work in Poole.
Scaling the civic high street
Action is needed to make this approach the norm. Communities are leading the way, but they need the right powers, investment, and partnerships to realise this vision.
That’s why we, with support from This Day, are bringing together practitioners and decision-makers. Together, we will:
- Connect existing supporters of this movement and forge new partnerships
- Develop policy, delivery, and funding models for civic regeneration
- Unlock the powers and investment communities need to drive change
- Champion a shared vision and build the case for change at a national level
Working collectively, we can move beyond promising examples and bring this model into being. Only with collaboration can we ensure all high streets are thriving hubs fit for the 21st century. The Collective exists to make that happen.
Join us
The Civic High Street Collective connects people and organisations who are delivering, supporting or funding work on community-led high streets. Register your interest to join the Collective or stay up to date with the project.
Our thinking on high streets
The latest on creating community-powered places and spaces.
Who runs our high streets? Models for community-powered regeneration
Unlocking doors on the civic high street: barriers to space and how to fix them
Pride in place means councils sharing control
Research and reports
Evidence on what works to revive our local spaces and reconnect our communities.
Keys to the future: How we build a new era of community ownership
Briefing: The civic high street
The new high street playbook: Community-led innovation in action
Be inspired
Stories from communities breathing life back into their places and spaces.
Back on the Map
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