The 'Healthy High Street' guide

The 'Healthy High Street' guide is the first of its kind: a practical aid to help local businesses, councils and community organisations spot the early warning signs and prevent further degeneration.

The guide was produced with the help of business organisations, high street traders and town centre managers and is based on their real life experiences. It includes tips such as how to check on whether an area is attractive to customers, whether there are good parking and public transport facilities and looking at the variety of shops on offer. It then helps them to work together to draw up an action plan for what needs to change to rejuvenate the area and put that plan into action.

Business Minister Mark Prisk said:

“There are almost 5,400 streets called 'High Street' in the country, but we recognise that some of these have faced real problems: empty shops, vandalism and loss of customers. Much of this could have been averted if they had spotted the signs early enough and if local people – chambers, town centre businesses and local authorities – had joined together to take appropriate action.

“My colleagues and I are committed to tackling these challenges head on. After all, our high streets need to be centres for economic growth as we move towards the recovery.

“This practical new guide is the first to identify indicators of future decline. Its healthcheck approach make it easier to assess the true state of a local high street, evaluate the risks and take real steps, such as establishing a Business Improvement District, and turn an area around.

“As the new local enterprise partnerships develop, the successes in a particular area can then be shared so that other high streets can benefit from their experiences, with the sort of local action that is at the heart of the Government's Big Society agenda.”

High streets play a crucial role at the heart of our local communities.

They are more than just a shopping destination for residents. Everyone with an interest in their local high street can play a role in maintaining and promoting a healthy trading environment and enabling it to thrive.
The UK has more than 5,400 places named 'High Street' and many more are high streets in everything but name. Each has its own traders; each has different customers, a different local authority, different buildings, different attractions and different problems. Their immediate environments are different, their local economic circumstances are different and they have different social issues.

Healthy High Street? is for anyone concerned about their local high street, particularly high street traders but – no matter whether you run a shop, work for the council, belong to the Chamber of Commerce, operate a local advice centre or none of these – if you care about the future of your high street, this is a healthcheck that's definitely worth a read.

Healthchecks are not for the obviously ill but for the apparently healthy. For high streets and town centres it's much the same: the people whose health is most affected are the ones with the greatest incentive to take the first step; they are the people who need to organise their own healthcheck or find someone competent to take on the responsibility of carrying it out.

If you know an area well, you can sometimes be blinded by familiarity and fail to pick up on clues until decline has already set in. The aim of this guide is to help open your eyes to give you an opportunity to take action as early as possible, meaning you have the best – and most likely the cheapest – chance of success.

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

There is a 5-minute checklist at the start, followed by more detailed pointers on where to look and how to identify the risks.

If your healthcheck does suggest it's time for action, the Next Steps section offers ideas to help you start out on the path back to a healthy high street.

In using this guide, please remember that one indicator alone may not predict a decline but several taken together may well do so. It is important to take wider trends into account, such as the rapid growth of e-retailing and the move towards healthier and environmentally friendly products; also, a downward trend in something does not
necessarily herald calamity to come – after all, in a recession all high streets will be impacted but it's their relative performance that is the key. So, benchmarking performance against similar high streets or town centres can be an extremely useful exercise.

Authors
This guide has been compiled by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills with the help of public and private sector organisations, businesses and individuals with wide experience of identifying and successfully tackling high street problems.