It is easy to talk about high streets in terms of what has been lost. Vacant units, declining footfall and the steady retreat of services once taken for granted have become familiar reference points in debates about town centres. But hearing from community businesses and socially trading organisations across the North East offers a different perspective — one that focuses less on decline and more on what is possible when communities are given the tools, space and confidence to act.
Over the summer, Power to Change collaborated with Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East (VONNE) and the North East Combined Authority, to bring together community businesses from across the region for a series of roundtable discussions on high street renewal. These conversations, spanning rural, coastal and urban contexts, were grounded in lived experience: people who are already running businesses on high streets, often with limited resources, but with a deep understanding of local needs and opportunities.
What emerged was not a single blueprint for renewal, but a set of consistent lessons about the conditions required for thriving, future-fit high streets that serve people and planet.
High streets as social infrastructure
One of the clearest messages from the roundtables was that the future of high streets lies well beyond retail alone. Power to Change has been making this case for years, but the wider debate on high streets is slow to catch up. With demand for traditional retail unlikely to return to previous levels, participants spoke about high streets as places of connection — spaces that host health services, cultural activity, learning, food, enterprise development and informal social interaction.
Community businesses and other socially trading organisations are already playing this role. By repurposing underused buildings into cinemas, cafés, workspaces or community hubs, they are creating reasons for people to spend time locally, rather than simply pass through. These spaces generate economic activity, but they also deliver wider social value: reducing isolation, supporting wellbeing and strengthening a sense of pride in place.
Importantly, this is not about replacing one monocultural model with another. The most effective approaches are highly place-specific, shaped by local history, geography and identity, and genuinely mixed-use. Coastal towns highlighted opportunities linked to heritage and tourism; rural areas pointed to the importance of transport, housing and access to services; urban discussions focused on ownership, accessibility and safety. What unites them is a recognition that communities themselves are best placed to shape response to both opportunities and challenges.
Ownership of spaces and places
Access to space remains one of the most persistent barriers facing community-led activity on the high street. High rents, inflexible leases and vacant buildings held by absentee landlords make it difficult for community businesses to get a foothold on the high street, let alone plan for the long term.
Participants consistently emphasised the importance of community ownership as a practical mechanism for stability and resilience. When communities have control over buildings and land, they are better able to take a long-term view, reinvesting surplus locally and adapting spaces to suit changing needs.
There is a growing opportunity for combined authorities and local councils to play a more active enabling role here. New powers, such as the High Street Rental Auctions and the forthcoming Community Right to Buy, can help unlock underused assets and support models of ownership that keep value rooted locally. However, crucially alongside these powers, the right funding and support must be in place so communities can use them effectively. Done well, there is opportunity here to shift high streets away from extractive models and short-termism, and towards long-term resilience and stewardship.
Governance that empowers local people
Another recurring theme was governance. Many participants expressed frustration with decision-making processes that feel distant, complex or closed to those actually living, working and interacting with the high streets in question. Consultation, where it happens, is often seen as sporadic rather than embedded, and rarely translates into meaningful collaboration with communities.
Yet the roundtables also demonstrated the appetite – and capacity – within the community business and socially trading sector to engage strategically. Allocating seats at decision-making tables, supporting community representation and resourcing participation properly were seen as essential steps, not optional extras, to promoting high street renewal.
Where governance is inclusive and collaborative, it can unlock better outcomes for everyone. Community businesses bring detailed local knowledge, strong networks and a willingness to experiment. Public bodies bring scale, legitimacy and convening power. Aligning these strengths requires time and trust, but the potential returns are significant. The High Street Commission itself is a great example of this in action, with excellent community business leaders sitting around the table with the Mayor and institutions from across the region. Commission members such as Jonpaul Kirvan from Orbis Community and Andy Haddon, founder of Big River Bakery and leader of one of Platform Places’ five Local Property Partnerships, are a gateway to expertise and networks for the commission that would otherwise be missing.
Community-led innovation
Across the discussions, there was no shortage of ideas and examples of innovation: meanwhile use of vacant property, flexible leasing models, local procurement schemes, community bonds, and digital tools.
This doesn’t come as a surprise to us. At Power to Change we know that community businesses drive innovation in places, finding solutions to address complex challenges in the places they operate. Our current Community-Led High Street Innovators programme is supporting five innovators as they explore different approaches to community-led high street regeneration across the country.
Like our innovators, participants at the roundtables highlighted the need for a more enabling environment to test ideas, learn and adapt – from flexible funding, to tailored capacity-building, to targeted policy interventions. Just as importantly, there was a call for regional strategies – from spatial planning to economic development – to explicitly recognise the role of the social economy in shaping high streets.
This is where combined authorities are uniquely placed to make a difference. By working alongside their constituent local authorities to align policy, funding and governance, they can shift community-powered approaches from the fringes to the mainstream, to deliver a shared vision of thriving, future-fit high streets.
Looking ahead
The conversations we heard point to a hopeful but possible future. High streets are changing, but that change does not have to mean decline. With the right conditions in place community businesses can be an effective partner for government in reimagining high streets as places that work for local people and local economies alike.
We’ve now met twice in two very different towns – South Shields and Chester-le-Street – and there are lots of really exciting ideas in the works. Power to Change, in partnership with the Mayor and the Commission, will make the case for embedding these lessons and revitalising high streets and town centres across the region.
