Jessica Craig
Policy Manager
About the report
Once a destination for generations of shoppers, department stores are on the decline. The growth of out-of-town retail and subsequent shift to online shopping have contributed to an 85% decrease in the number of department stores on Britain’s high streets over the past decade, with many well-known brands leaving our towns for good. With an oversupply of retail space on our high streets, new uses must be found for these national institutions.
A number of new and creative uses of former department stores and other shopping spaces are emerging, with these spaces reopening as cultural hubs, workspaces and health centres. Often, these spaces combine elements of retail with new activities to create a mixed-use space, providing an offer that can draw a greater and wider audience back to the high street.
Communities across the country are also developing their own solutions to the decline of department stores, tackling both high street vacancy and the loss of these important social spaces. They are part of a wider movement of communities taking back their high streets, bringing new life to old buildings to strengthen their communities and keep money circulating in their local economies.
The reimagining of these spaces is consistent with public sentiment about department stores. While just 8% of British shoppers regularly do most of their shopping in a department store, polling by More in Common for Power to Change suggests that 90% of people want to see former department stores reimagined, either for shopping or for new purposes like public service delivery, entertainment and leisure, housing and community space.
Through case studies and interviews with four community businesses managing department stores and town centre shopping spaces, supplemented by insights from other high street stakeholders, this report explores the opportunities of community reuse of department stores, as well as the challenges entailed in running them for broad community benefit.
The report also calls on government to adopt policies to make community ownership on the high street more accessible, including creating a Civic High Streets Accelerator, channelling more local growth and regeneration funding towards community-led high streets initiatives, and more policies to support community ownership on the high street.