What happens on our high streets is shaped by who owns them, who governs them, and who gets to make decisions about them. Our briefing ‘The civic high street‘ argues for a new organising principle for the next phase of high street renewal: a shift away from retail-led towards mixed-use places centred on community life. These are high streets that combine enterprise with care, housing, culture and public services, creating more resilient economies and stronger social infrastructure.
Drawing on evidence from community-led regeneration across England, the briefing shows what enables this model to take hold, and what holds it back. Fragmented ownership, inaccessible data, limited local authority capacity and insecure tenure all make it harder for communities to access and steward high street spaces over the long term.
We’ve set out five practical steps for government to unlock the civic high street: tackling vacancy through new ownership models, supporting councils to use existing powers, improving data transparency, reforming meanwhile use, and enabling communities to move from temporary use to long-term stewardship.
With significant public investment committed to high street renewal, there is a real opportunity to embed this approach in national strategy. A civic model offers a route to high streets that are more vibrant, more inclusive and more rooted in the people who use them every day.