How can we fix UK high streets?

Posted by gggggenegenie@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 536 comments

I went for a day trip to Swindon yesterday. I walk through Middlesbrough regularly. It depresses me that, 20 years ago these streets would be really busy, with bustling shops selling everything we need. Now, they are full of empty shops, decaying car parks and very few people frequenting them. Where did it all go wrong and, more importantly, what (if anything) can be done to liven these areas up again? I Stockton on Tees have knocked down a big shopping centre and hotel and are opening an urban park on this site later this year. Is this an answer?

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Ralphisinthehouse@reddit

In the 80's it was a 4 hour round trip to buy a pair of trainers. Now it's a 5 minute browse and click and they come direct to your door. There is no saving the high street in that format. Convenience always wins for humans. History is littered with once great institutions that disappeared without trace.

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jsm97@reddit

I think people need to be very careful about conflating high streets and town centres. They are not and should not be the same thing. The era of the retail dominated high street is over and is not coming back. But Britain's dying, decrepit town centres are not normal and shouldn't be seen as part of some wider trend. Other countries have managed the transition away from retail much, much better. In Britain we are held back by the fact that no one actually lives in our town centres in order to create the density for hospitality and leisure opportunities, urban sprawl, poor public transport, high rents and business rates and extremely high energy costs. A town without a centre is not a town. It's a glorified housing estate. It is vital for towns to have an economic centre of gravity where people live, work and socialise.

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AngelasGingerGrowler@reddit

Towns in Scotland generally have more people living in the centre than comparable English towns.

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Jon_talbot56@reddit

Other European countries banned edge of centre/ out of town and that has helped preserve traditional centres. Plus Brits are by far the world’s most enthusiastic online shoppers. Town centres do have a future as social and entertainment spaces

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danddersson@reddit

I struggle to think of what leisure opportunities work in this situation.

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International-You-13@reddit

If you have nothing to offer but streets of cars and houses, and are unwilling to change that then there's no opportunity.

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EasySwordfish862@reddit

Most English towns are dumps , bad roads , too much street furniture and road paint (why do yellow lines have to be so wide, nice villages usually have narrower lines and they work just as effectively) , expensive car parks , litter, ugly wheelie bins everywhere - not being political but most long term labour strongholds are the worst which makes you wonder about the effectiveness of the councils and why the locals keep voting them in? Most places are too far gone for anyone to take any pride in their communities. Final salary pensions are an huge burden on the community economics too, after salaries there is little cash left for the good stuff. Too many CEOs and managers - most towns could be run by a decent FD.

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Optimuswolf@reddit

Out of interest what countries have done it better? I know in France for example many towns/cities prevented retail only areas from proliferating so the decline has been less noticeable (there were always restaurants and cafés mixed in, much as there is in a nice village high street in the UK).

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harmslongarms@reddit

The Netherlands has done a pretty good job - Dutch urban centres are full of coffee shops, bars, and restaurants. It's possible because their exceptional cycling infrastructure means that most people have an essentially free way to travel into town centres which links these businesses to their customers

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aitorbk@reddit

Not only free, enjoyable. I cycle everywhere in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is hazardous, and I endure it. When I visit the Netherlands it is enjoyable. Not dangerous, I don't use a helmet or gloves unless it is cold. So going near the center, locking the bike and having a walk is quite nice.

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breadandbutter123456@reddit

You should wear a helmet. It is similar to the way you should wear a seatbelt in a car. They are there for your safety. It should be law that cyclists wear helmets. They save lives.

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ambadawn@reddit

They don't wear helmets when cycling in the Netherlands.

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breadandbutter123456@reddit

They don’t wear seatbelts in Côte d’Ivoire. Doesn’t mean that seatbelts don’t save lives.

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camcamio@reddit

They don't wear helmets in the Netherlands and they have the lowest cycling injury ratio in Europe. It's because of car dominated infrastructure here that we have to wear a helmet.

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Specific_Club_7640@reddit

There have been studies as well as common sense about cycle helmet wearing. I wear one because I can be clumsy at times. However, cycle helmets only protect your head. If your body is hit by a car, a helmet isn't particularly useful at saving your body.

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vinyljunkie1245@reddit

>If your body is hit by a car, a helmet isn't particularly useful at saving your body Sorry but that is a terrible argument against wearing a helmet.

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aitorbk@reddit

I do in the uk. You will find that helmets are as useful for cyclists as they are for drivers, in vehicle accidents. Why should I wear one and not car occupants? How is a helmet going to help me against a HGV or a car hitting me at an intersection? Hardly. Even with marginal utility, I do wear a helmet in Scotland. Look at the stats: hardly useful. Because it will prevent my death at 24km/h, but a car hitting me at 50kmh is beyond the protection of the helmet, and the rest of the body is damaged beyond recovery anyway.

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Ok-Explanation1990@reddit

A car or hgv could hit you - or even just miss you - at an intersection and instead of squashing yiu it can throw you through the air over the handlebars and onto the ground, where the tarmac can hit your skull with the force of your body weight+ speed. And somewhere without motor vehicles, even a pedestrian stepping out in front of you, or accidentally striking a pedal against a kerb, can cause a similar effect. I've seen it. I've seen cyclists with serious head injuries as result of not wearing a helmet. Please wear a helmet.

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breadandbutter123456@reddit

Exactly. Hitting a pothole….

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aitorbk@reddit

As I say, in Scotland (where I live) I do wear a helmet.

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Zal_17@reddit

I travel around European retail hotspots a lot for my job. Netherlands and Germany both do it very well, Netherlands especially. UK is sadly probably the worst in terms of keeping the high streets alive. One of the main differences is out of town retail parks just aren't really a thing in these countries, so people gravitate to the centre for shopping (which in turn attracts restaurants, bars etc). Big indoor shopping centres are rare in Netherlands too, all major shops want a presence on their high street, so there are very few empty units, and again it keeps everything bustling (which again in turn attracts more people).

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vinyljunkie1245@reddit

Many towns in this country have insanely high rents, business rates and other costs that are prohibitive for anybody except huge chain stores, but they aren't interested as they are in the out of town shopping centres. Premises sit empty and neglected and make the place feel miserable and unwelcoming. Those high streets that are dying are soulless identikit copies of each other. There is barely anything interesting to draw people to them that they can't get online. The thriving towns are the ones with lots of local, interesting businesses that give people a reason to visit - something they can't get elsewhere. Local councils can have a huge influence in this. I've seen it in smaller towns near me that have worked to open up the empty places the corporate stores have vacated and work with the local community to revitalise things. I'd like the future of the high street to be thriving local businesses - those who provide and pride themselves on their knowledge of their business and can give the area a buzz. Bring bars and cafés with music and events, hold art installations, celebrate the area and its history. Bring things that are fun and enriching for people's lives, not just places to funnel money to corporations.

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Browbeaten9922@reddit

They also invented controls on out of town shopping centres which we imported (but it was sort of too late) which previously killed our high streets.

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Glittering_Vast938@reddit

Absolutely the dedicated cycleways. Here you just can’t without risking life and limb! You can’t even get to my local town as there are no buses, no footpaths and no cycle paths. It’s pretty flat so would be easily cyclable if there were means.

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Optimuswolf@reddit

Thanks - ive not been to the netherlands much, so this is interesting (and makes sense re the cycling culture)

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heartpassenger@reddit

Barcelona is a great example. So many of their residential blocks are mixed use - shops and experiences on the ground floor, flats above. Mixed use buildings bring leisure, work, and retail footfall into an area, at all times of day. It depresses me seeing all these new build city centre flats go up in my city, with a ground floor that’s only got a concierge and car park. This makes them dead zones at night. Mixed use units with shops, restaurants, experiences, and “third space” areas like small play parks or libraries are what we need to revitalise UK town centres, but to do this we need to accept that not everyone gets a house with a garden.

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Cool_Snow_5857@reddit

I'm currently in Seoul and previously lived just outside Toronto and both do a similar thing, big high rise multi use apartment complexes with housing above and shops, cafes, restaurants, doctors etc on lower floors and then parking underground. Absolutely baffles me why we don't do this. Almost like each building becomes self sufficient to an extent especially when they have doctors surgeries etc included.

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Optimuswolf@reddit

Great example - thanks. It seems so simple really. Define the centre(s) as the busy, convenience focused areas but still mixed residential, retail, and services. Until i had kids I'd have hated a garden and loved being close to a cinema etc.

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Defiant-Tackle-0728@reddit

Look at the likes of the Barbican in London, and Park Hill in Sheffield. When they were first constructed Park Hill was home to 2000 families, it had a Primary School, a Doctors surgery, a Community Centre, an arcade of shops with a small library and the large Castle Market was a short walk away, it had 3 pubs, 2 playgrounds and open spaces, heating, electric and waste disposal systems and was well cared for. By the time the Barbican was completed the original arcade of shops were converted to offices but there was an art gallery, concert halls, cinemas, restaurants, pubs, a wine bar, a library, communal gardens, the Golden Lane Estate next door had tennis courts and a pool. Mixed use developments have long been the norm in design, the problem has always been encouraging businesses to stay.

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GodOfThunder888@reddit

Very much seconding mixed use areas as they also do for city centers in The Netherlands. You don't go to the stores to see the same items they offer online, you go for the experience or convenience of the store. Maybe you're going to the cinema but can pop in the shops because it's just there around the corner... Additionally, in NL there is always some event on to pull people to the center. They don't go for the shops itself, they go for something else and combine it with visiting a shop since they are already there. It was Easter last weekend, I don't think there was anything on in the cities near me? And if there was, it was poorly advisertised since I looked for something to do. There is only ever something on Christmas time, any other time of the year it's just the same shops. Shopping streets should utilise any excuse for an event to pull people to their town, and if there is no excuse, make one up.

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cherrycoke3000@reddit

Le Corbusier designed the first tower blocks. They were communities, as you describe, shops, nurseries, Doctors, etc, were part of there integral design. We just built the flats, without the communities. Then wondered why they failed.

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Cirias@reddit

If our coffee shops opened in the evenings that would do a lot to help in this country.

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c0r3l86@reddit

Many people haven't the money or time to do more than exist.

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Ballbag94@reddit

We also have fuck all to do in the evening that isn't drinking or an activity

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Salaried_Zebra@reddit

>an activity Am I missing something, but isn't everything "to do in the evening" an activity of some sort? What are you suggesting as the alternative to "an activity"?

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Ballbag94@reddit

Sorry, I was unclear By "an activity" I mean places where you go to do a specific thing like bowling or darts or a film as opposed to somewhere you can just go and hang out Like, there are non pub places open, but they're generally geared towards a specific activity that you do and then leave once your time on that activity is done

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Salaried_Zebra@reddit

Ahhh got you

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Paulstan67@reddit

I agree with the "people not living in the town centers" There are shops with empty upstairs rooms that could easily be flats. The coffee shops , cafes and even restaurants close early evening because there is no custom, the bus stops running at 7pm so even those in the nearby suburbs struggle to visit in the evening. Whenever in towns and cities abroad (not necessarily in tourist areas) , every shop has apartments above that are lived in. And the public transport runs from early to late. We have a housing issue here, and yet I see buildings empty, offices empty. Many of the old factory/mills have seem converted to accomodation, it's time we start with high streets/town centers. In my town there are 3 old multi floor department stores, all have been empty and "to let" for years. They could be brilliant as accommodation.

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ohnobobbins@reddit

Yes. When you look at French towns, every building above shops in town is apartments. It’s crazy we have a housing crisis and a ton of space sits unused. I think it has to do with who owns these commercial buildings, and our planning committees & structure.

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thebaronharkkonen@reddit

So well put.

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Mundo7@reddit

If it’s that vital why is it not happening then? What is it vital for?

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bendibus400@reddit

Becauae then you get towns like the pit villages in county durham where there's no centre and no employment and nothing to do and infrastructure and housing falls to bits and people hate where they live and no investment comes into the town ans crime and anti social behaviour goes through the roof and the cycle continues. Why would anybody want to live like that? It's not happening because it's not an easy fix. It takes internal & external investment and culture shift which are not things you can just do overnight

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tdrules@reddit

Pit villages were built for pits. They don’t have an inherent right to exist and the politicians who lie to them that a sixth form and an Amazon warehouse will fix things should be ashamed.

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Greedy-Mechanic-4932@reddit

Tell me you're from Nottinghamshire, without telling me... But - nail on the head.

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deltic12@reddit

So had my breakfast in a proper cafe, visit to the pet shop followed by a visit to a hardware store finished off with a visit to a garden centre all in one pit village.. Coxhoe is far from dead……,

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bendibus400@reddit

Sone of them are great, many of them are less so, some are objectively diabolical places to live in the 21st century. We both live in the north east, we both know that. ''Pit villages" was used as a rough example of places that have suffered greatly from not having an economic centre as per the comment I replied to. I could have easily mentioned old seaside towns in Wales or inland Cornwall or NE Lincolnshire or wherever you wish

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RockTheBloat@reddit

You want economic activity, buy what activity? Wanting it doesn’t just create demand.

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DrHydeous@reddit

Errm, but people do live in our town centres. Look up above the ground floor and, yes, there's solicitors' offices and stuff, but there's also lots and lots of flats above the shops. And the street behind all the shops is often mostly housing. It's only a few places whose centres have been "hollowed out" and no longer have people living there. You can explore how many people live in various places, down to really quite fine levels of detail, here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/maps/choropleth/population/population-density/population-density/persons-per-square-kilometre.

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This_Rom_Bites@reddit

>A town without a centre is not a town. It's a glorified housing estate. It is economically vital for towns to have a centre of gravity where people live, work and socialise. On the button. The 'town' I live in is basically a dormitory for a motorway and a major A road; it has no centre, and it's the most soulless place I've ever lived. Unfortunately it's also by far the most conveniently located for family and commutes.

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Superb_Literature547@reddit

I went to a retail outlet and it was rammed. Easy access off a motorway, ample free parking, modern facilities, great selection of very large shops, landscaped grounds, private security. its a substantially better experience than 99% of the dated high streets we have. Best thing we can do to our high streets is converting them to higher density housing like Europe so shop actually have customer as know one sitting in traffic then paying £5 an hour to park.

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Puzzledandhangry@reddit

Lots of town centres are just the high street though.

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Ralphisinthehouse@reddit

Kind of, but it’s more complicated. Town centres were busy because retail was embedded in daily life. As that’s shifted online and to retail parks, footfall’s dropped, but it’s part of a wider change rather than a single cause.

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Virtual_Field439@reddit

Also business rates and rents

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n0p_sled@reddit

This seems to be a big problem where we are. Niche, but popular food business and cafes don't seem to be able to generate enough income to remain viable once rates and rents are paid (according to their closing down Facebook posts) unless they put prices up so much that people will eventually stop going. That said, Turkish barber shops seem so popular that our high street can support two of them

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LowarnFox@reddit

I know that people like to make jokes about barber shops being a front etc, but if you consider the business model, a barber shop has less overheads than a restaurant and can generally operate in a much smaller shop which likely has lower rent. A barber shop can probably be viable and operate with as few as 2 staff members in at quieter times, a restaurant definitely needs more. People who are paying say £10-15 at a barber shop are in and out quickly, whereas at a restaurant, depending on the type, people may sit around all evening and pay £60. I do think hair and beauty probably has the edge on food in terms of lower costs, higher turnover, etc. I also think there are a lot more people who never go out to eat than never pay for a haircut.

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funusernam3@reddit

£15-25 for a basic cut in London now

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n0p_sled@reddit

Yes, what you say is no doubt very true. There seems to be a big gap between what people say they want on a high street and what / where they actually their spend money in a high street, too.

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LowarnFox@reddit

Yes- I do think there are a lot of people who like to go out to browse in shops and then maybe get a coffee or similar. Unfortunately, browsing doesn't pay the bills of the shops! I do think people like having a range of shops to look around, and of course it looks more appealing than a lot of empty shop fronts, but these shops aren't making very much money. Whereas people will make a special trip into town to get their hair cut/get their nails done etc.

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bored_toronto@reddit

I remember reading online comments, back when Woolworth's folded, that it was retail landlords jacking up rents. I live abroad (Canada) and I often see restaurants shut down with a paper sign in the door from the creditor (owner didn't pay rent). A few months later: a new restaurant appears. Rinse and repeat. (I often see new places open up in a space where the prior restaurant folded).

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Virtual_Field439@reddit

I too have observed this

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inevitablelizard@reddit

I would also add building density of housing nearby, rather than sprawling housing estate. Provides more housing, helps get property values under control, and means more potential customers of a hypothetical local business living within walking distance of where the high street is. Combine that with getting business rates under control and local independent businesses become more viable. When rent and business rates are too high, only large established chains can afford it and every high street just becomes a clone of every other one, choosing from a selection of the same nationwide chains.

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aitorbk@reddit

Add outrageous employee taxes, electric and gas bills. The cost is ridiculously high, before any clients enter the premises.

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Master_Sympathy_754@reddit

and free parking

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Ralphisinthehouse@reddit

Yeah but those have largely increased as an effect of shops being deserted

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ThrustersToFull@reddit

Indeed. It astonishes me the number of people who seem to think all of our ills can be cured by "going back to the old days".

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MacViller@reddit

Won't cure all ills but I do think that when people have disposable income they will go back "to the old days" for leisure. It's always the wealthiest areas that support fishmongers, greengrocers and butchers. People get spare cash and realise it's a more enjoyable experience. It's poorer areas where it's just an iceland or an out of town Asda.

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MacViller@reddit

Yet wealthy areas still have thriving high streets with independent, butchers, bakeries, grocers, restaurants, pubs etc. People enjoy going out and spending money on things like that. It's just most people don't have the money to spend. The high street or my home town in the Midlands is a ghost town. My local patch of SW London is very different because people have the disposable income to spend.

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Altruistic_Fruit2345@reddit

They have the internet in Japan too, but their high streets are doing okay. They open 10-7 or 11-8, so people can actually go shopping outside work hours and the weekend. They actually have the things you want. It's so bad in the UK that unless I know for sure a shop has what I want, I don't bother going to look anymore. They have genuine sales, not the fake ones we get. There are more independent shops, and even the chains often do something individual at the local level. Stock rotates regularly, so there is a reason to go look.

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PercySmith@reddit

Exactly. People need to accept that as long as we enjoy the convenience of Amazon filling the high street with standard retail shops will never succeed. High streets need to be more mixed use with affordable entertainment venues. The retail high street is dead.

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jordsta95@reddit

Entertainment! That is the key thing IMO. I'm not talking pubs, cafes, etc. We need more libraries, escape rooms, arcades, pool halls, etc. Add stuff to high streets and town centres that people can't get at home, and they will come... so long as it's somewhat affordable. And then after their time at the entertainment venue they will likely stop at a cafe or maybe buy a new pair of shoes "while they're in the area"... but if there's no reason for them to go there, what hope do the traditional high street/town centre businesses have of getting people through the door? They can't offer cheaper prices than Amazon. And they can't really offer the convenience either; aside from clothes shops being able to allow you to try it on before you buy, knowing what you're buying will fit you. There's only so many hair dressers or dentists or whatever in-person-only service businesses you can fit on a high street before they eat up each others' customer base. And they aren't going to bring in consistent business to the surrounding business.

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nanakapow@reddit

You're not wrong. At the risk of being a bit nerdy, looking at star trek as a "post-retail economy" provides an interesting hypothetical case study. Q: in a world where people can get any physical items they want (including food and drink) from a replicator (for free), what do they do with their free time? A: bars, casinos, food courts, concerts, building things, holodecks, getting freaky with aliens/candle ghosts, and participating in dangerous batleth tournaments

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bored_toronto@reddit

...you forgot NSFW holo's at Quark's.

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jordsta95@reddit

Food courts! OMG! That's another thing I would love to see more of. You want to meet up with your friends, but you've got a vegan, someone on a low-calorie diet, someone who is seemingly allergic to salad with how little veg they eat, and then yourself - currently in the mood for something different? Good luck finding somewhere to meet up and spend a few hours. Luckily we have a place nearby which has a fair few different food vendors in a shared food hall (unluckily, it's all stupidly expensive - like £30pp for a lacklustre meal, but at least it's an option). Another one which my wife and I have recently come to love is buffet-style restaurants. Used to live in Mansfield, where food choices were pretty much just chain restaurant, pub, or small cafe (there were a few apparently nice Indians - but they're a no go due to dietary restrictions)... So not much variety. Moved last year, and we have two buffet-style restaurants in close-proximity. And they are so good for when you don't know what you want/can't agree. It would be so nice to see them become more common across the country.

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nanakapow@reddit

You might not like this but I always feel like buffet restaurants end up being a bit weak. Their market positioning is always "we're the place with lots of options", but when I'm going out I tend to skew towards places which actually do good food. It's telling that many buffets also market themselves on an all-you-can-eat basis. I stopped going buffets about a decade ago, no regrets. That said my social circle doesn't seem quite as awkward. Or maybe I'm the awkward one in my circle because I'm vegetarian. Oh fun titbit: the places with rave reviews often have meh veggie food. And the places with amazing vegetarian recipes are often underlooked.

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Gold-Perception-8021@reddit

But you had your trainers in those four hours, now you click and buy in 5 minutes but they come the next day or a few days later

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SquirrelIll8180@reddit

Reminds me of going to the great library of Babylon as a child. Wandering through the gardens of Apalonia and seeing the great philosophers of the time chatting. Now i buy books on Amazon.

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UuusernameWith4Us@reddit

The proportion of people in this country who live 2 hours away from the high street is tiny. Also being able to try on shoes and clothes in a shop is a much better experience than buying online.

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Ralphisinthehouse@reddit

Oh, dude, please tell me you didn't think I meant they lived two hours away. We lived 15 minutes from the town centre in the 80s and it's still a four-hour trip. You have to get in the car, go to the local car park, walk to the shop you want, not find what you want, go to another few shops, find what you want, walk back to the car, get home....

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750volts@reddit

Don't forget the fact you have to wait at least a day for delivery and that's if it ends up on the right place, if your parcels being delivered by Evri you should find it in a rough 2 mile radius of your house, if it's Royal Mail, you may get your parcel at some point within the next few months. Certain items that I need quickly I still go high street shopping for.

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BillWilberforce@reddit

Also I've got one foot that's a 10 and one that's a 10.5. Can't get half sizes on the High Street so have to get an 11. So one foot has way too much space but I can get half sizes on the internet quite happily.

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Dramatic-Energy-4411@reddit

Accessibility is a consideration. I've recently moved to an area where the town centre is doing well. I put a lot of it down to the council still letting you drive through it, and even park there. For free. There,'s plenty of spaces, so if I want to nip in to a bank, or post office or mooch around the market, it's easy. Thanks to this easy access, I've started shopping locally again. Town planners who have forced cars out of towns need to have a rethink.

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plongeronimo@reddit

What do you mean 'fix' them? What do you think that looks like?

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en91n33r@reddit

High streets were for a different era when more people were not working 9-5. New ideas are needed to repurpose the spaces IMO.

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

We need people not to be poor. We need the local businesses not to be shit/franchises. We need council run car parks to stop being costly, especially in towns where parking is more abundant than the visitors. My town is a prime example, 60p for three hours to park, lest you risk a council issued fine, is just way too much faff that nobody wants to deal with JUST to they can have a wander into a charity shop.

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EtwasSonderbar@reddit

Hold on, you're complaining about a 20p/hour charge?

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

I am - because of the principle of it. There's plenty of on street parking. There actually used to be a second larger car park but they "pedestrianised" it - though it's a small town, that area is exclusively used to walk from what's left of the old car park to the kebab shop, except on market days where parking is suspended anyway. So other than the few spaces of on street parking, there's just the big car park by the river. This is council owned, and has been deteriorating every year. Despite the cost of parking going from free to 50p to 60p (and actually it might even be 70p now, plus extra 20p if you use RingGo), it's never had any repairs. There are a hundred spaces separated by what can only be described as crators. So yes, I'm moaning about paying to park, because the car park is dire, and the council put flags up on all the lamposts around the town saying "eat, drink, shop, local" and maintain those every year, but no fucker wants to go into town unless it's to visit the pubs. Amazingly, we're actually doing well as a town. One or two vacant properties on the outskirts, but the high street itself is doing well. Lots of barbers, a Tesco Express, a Subway, but mostly small businesses. Though we probably get away with it because it's easy enough to walk to, just those who would have to drive because they live 2 miles off in the new estates really just don't bother. And it's actually created a community divide. I know this rant now sounds like I think high streets are dying because parking isn't free lol. I can get it in places where there's more parkers than parking spaces, but in my town, there just really isn't

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EtwasSonderbar@reddit

The entitlement of car drivers amazes me. You want everyone's council tax to go up to repair a car park because you don't want to pay for use of it?

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

No, I want them to repair it \*because\* I pay to use it, silly :)

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WhalingSmithers00@reddit

At 20p an hour you're barely paying. Not seen town centre parking that cheap going back as far as the 90s. It's usually at least £1 an hour

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Full-Measurement4927@reddit

Mate London you can pay like £18 an hour in some areas..

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jonewer@reddit

So wait, you're complaining about having to pay 20p an hours for parking while also saying that the high street is doing well. I honestly don't know wtf you're complaining about here, other than demanding the tax payer subsidises the cost of storing your private property on public land

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Cheap-Vegetable-4317@reddit

20 p an hour is a fantastic price. I could afford to park up in your town and get the train to my town at that rate. Street parking is 8.60 an hour in Southwark.

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davey-jones0291@reddit

Had to scroll disappointingly far for the poor comment. The elephant in the room is high streets took people's disposable income. Disposable income has basically disappeared for most folk and has had a heavy trim for all but the top 10% of wealthy folk. People choosing between heating and eating can't go down the pub twice a week and buy tat from Argos WHSmith and next. It is partly that simple. Online did the rest.

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CeresToTycho@reddit

Having the businesses not be shit is a huge one. I can buy stuff online from most high street chains devoid of character, but I go into town for the likes of the independent record shops, the independent "handmade" shop, the independent coffee store that sells local bread. It needs to be a trip worth making because it's nice. Visiting Zara in person followed by a Starbucks is just shit. Shopping independently requires not being poor though.

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fuzzerino@reddit

This, problem is that the majority of people just don’t care about independent shops / quality goods / quirky experiences. They just want everything at bargain bin prices, hence why Amazon, chains and fast fashion wins.

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CeresToTycho@reddit

If business rates and rents were lower on high street and city centers for independents, I think they'd survive just fine. There's plenty of business for them, but councils and landlords charge them the same as huge multi-national chains rather than appreciating that independents make your city or high-street a destination.

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Penderyn@reddit

Jesus imagine complaining about 60p for three hours parking.

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Slapedd1953@reddit

On street parking in my town recently increased from £2.80 to £3.60 per hour, yours is a bargain! I don’t think the council make any money though, most of the cars have blue badges.

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

Ouch. Reminds me - I like going on holiday to Cornwall, one of my favourite towns is Looe. I swear a few years ago parking, even in peak times, was 60p an hour. And now there's a two tier system, and in summer time (April to October I think), they want £2.50 per hour! Absolutely bending tourists over for a quick dime.

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MermaidPigeon@reddit

60p…? I had an appointment in town yesterday and was there 35 min, it coast me £5!

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fuzzydogpaws@reddit

60p for three hours is a bargain.

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datguysadz@reddit

Rent is the absolute biggest factor. Last year I discovered how much a rent a bar in Wolverhampton had to pay and I was left in a state of shock. We've lost the likes of Beatties and Mark's and Spencers over the last few years because of how high the rent is.

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ThreeLionsOnMyShirt@reddit

I believe people when they say that high rents contribute to this issue. But I don't understand why that is? If the complaint is that high streets are dead and deserted, and the reason for this is in part that the rent for units there are too expensive for shops/bars - then why don't the rents come down? Who is paying the currently high rents and how, if footfall is low? If M&S can't justify it then who can? And if no-one, then who are these landlords sitting on empty properties and how can they afford to do that?

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hattorihanzo5@reddit

Landlords would rather sit on an empty property than lower rents. If they lower their rent, then it "devalues" everything else around it. Numbers must only go up! "Free market" capitalism, baby!

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Full-Measurement4927@reddit

That is not true. If landlords didn't care about making the property pay then they wouldn't care about the renters rights act.

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AdAggressive9224@reddit

Ooo I know! If you're a commercial landlord, you can lie and say your property is worth more than it really is, and then, you can borrow more money, to, yes, you guessed it, buy even more commercial property. So, that is part of the issue. Cooking the books.

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bendibus400@reddit

Property owners don't want to reduce rental value on paper as it would impact the valuation of their portfolio. Private Equity/Pension funds need to show that their assets retain or increase in value to shareholders, and as commercial property is valued on potential yield, there's no incentive for rents to drop even if properties are vacant. This doesn't explain premises owned by individuals, bur it's a problem that plagues inner cities in the UK

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spaceandthewoods_@reddit

I believe that the rent price is linked to how the building is valued, and a lot of large commercial buildings are linked to pensions schemes and other financial instruments. If the building owner charges less rent, the value to the building goes down and this impacts the people who are using it to prop up pension values etc So from a financial perspective it's actually better to let these massive units stay closed and advertised at the higher rent than fill them at a cheaper rent. It's fucked

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datguysadz@reddit

That's the issue with Wolverhampton. The town centre is dead. The shops are really, really shit and I don't know anyone who goes shopping there anymore. My grandmother was an M&S regular but now goes to the Bridgnorth one. M&S had been in Wolverhampton since the 1920s. It didn't feel possible that it could shut down. I believe it is being turned into apartments now. Beatties was in Wolverhampton for over 140 years, but that building has been abandoned for 7 years. I don't know how anyone can afford that.

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fcGabiz@reddit

Rents have typically been falling for years now in secondary / non-regionally dominant locations. In the case of Wolverhampton, I don't believe it was necessarily a case of affordability for M&S. I believe that they still have a requirement for Wolverhampton, albeit out of town and to include their food hall format. But naturally M&S pulling out of town will have an impact on the high street, because they are a footfall driver. There are sometimes reasons to sit on vacant property, but I don't think that is really the case here.

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SearchLightsInc@reddit

These investors and corporate landlords hijack the rents even if the building lay empty because it makes their market portfolio look more lucrative than it actually is. Should be illegal to do so but we know this country chooses business over everything.

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badger906@reddit

My stores business rates are £36,000 a year. That’s £100 a day just to be open.

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fcGabiz@reddit

Whilst rent is undoubtedly a factor, I'm not certain that was the driving factor in these two particular scenarios. I'd argue that Beatties was the victim of changing attitudes to retail and the impact on department stores. That was (and continues to be) a countrywide issue. M&S on the other hand are adapting to their current retail model, which is out of town and drives their food offer.

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violetrain1@reddit

Can’t believe I had to scroll this far to see actual/main contributing factor. Rents have skyrocket in last 20 years; you basically now have to have existing capital to start a business or rent a commercial outlet in UK now

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Sithfish@reddit

Every few months someone from work will be like 'went town centre, isn't it shit now, no wonder no one goes there.' They are getting it the wrong way round. It's not deserted because it's shit, it's shit because it's deserted. In this case, if you come, they will build it.

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theSniperDevil@reddit

Make them owned by the council and have rents based on upkeep of property and a small percentage of profits. Landlord demands for rent income increases push small businesses out and eventually all businesses in small communities can't afford the upkeep costs of being in the high street. Making it affordable for small businesses to set up shop will do a lot to rejuvenate them.

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Early_Enthusiasm_787@reddit

Make them smaller and convert the ends to housing. Make the middle More mixed use. Places like Wimbledon and Kingston are fine as very mixed areas of shops, pubs restaurants and activities.

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gourmetguy2000@reddit

Most of the town centre refurbs I've seen recently have built mixed use flats with retail underneath. I guess it guarantees people to be there

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jolittletime@reddit

But they also have more independent shops. If councils want to get people into towns they need to give them places to go with stuff they can't buy online. Brighton Laines for example. But it means reducong rents and rates. There's a reason why charity shops are everywhere - as they have much better rates. But also parking costs are insane. I live in Reading and parking to go and get anything will cost over £4. So we'll go to an out of town place for coffee or lunch and avoid paying it.

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LittleSadRufus@reddit

Reducing rents and rates is key. Decent cafes and independent shops are increasingly a social good rather than being a way for councils to farm extra taxes.

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Tasty-Explanation503@reddit

Still never get over Kingston closing Hippodrome in 2018 to make way for Surrey house development, that to this day is nowhere to be seen.

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750volts@reddit

Exactly this, sounds a bit wanky but have the high street focus on third place and experience related stuff rather than retail.

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TremendousCustard@reddit

But no noise complaints if you choose to move where there's noise. It's killing off music venues.

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RevellRider@reddit

I really feel the "agents of change" act that was touted a few years again should come back. If you add housing to an area where there is a night time scene, you make sure that those moving into the area are given a quiet life but insulating the properties from nouse

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BeaumarchaisApu@reddit

I agree with this. From what I see the places that are doing better are following this strategy. If the shops aren’t doing enough to bring people in then have things that aren’t shops there instead that will bring people in, and also bring the people in by having more residential closer to the centre.

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International-You-13@reddit

It's not really fixable in the way you'd like, unless you make them destinations for something other than shopping, if you have a strong walking /cycling/outdoor leisure scene locally then you can cater for that by serving their needs (cafes, clothing, bike trails, services, hotels, restaurants) rather than optimistically expecting people to come from far and wide for no discernable reason.

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AdAggressive9224@reddit

"Use it of lose it" rents, empty commercial property needs to be rented at a peppercorn rent to a pop-up (full repairing lease) if not rented out within 6 months of vacancy. Basically, if it's empty, it's free real estate for a local business. Give them a 6month contract.

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DoctorWhofan789eywim@reddit

The high street is dead. They need to be made into community spaces. Cafes, pubs, cinemas etc.

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danddersson@reddit

We srew knee-deep in cafes already. Cinemas are struggling, due to streaming and cheap tvs. Pubs are struggling due to less drinking, cheaper home drinking.

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Emergency-Ad-5379@reddit

If the cafes are successful then what's the problem? Better than empty units or bookies.

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danddersson@reddit

Sure, if there is enough demand to support them all. But my point was, the question was about recovering high streets, and cafes have had a good go. But they can't do it alone.

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Emergency-Ad-5379@reddit

Ah I see what you mean now. Every time I go on my local newspaper website the comments there that moan at every change seem to have lumped coffee shops in with bookies, chicken shops, vape shops and Turkish barbers as blights on the high street and I really don't see how they can compare. A good coffee shop or cafe can really drive the tone of a high street and can go a long way towards making it a much more pleasant place to be.

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danddersson@reddit

Agreed!

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glasgowgeg@reddit

> Cinemas are struggling, due to streaming and cheap tvs Cinemas aren't properly competing with streaming or cheap TVs because you can't say "I'll sit at home and watch this film instead of the cinema" because a film currently in the cinema won't be out on streaming yet. If you have kids wanting to see the new Mario film, you're not just deciding to turn on Netflix and watch it there, because it's not out yet.

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danddersson@reddit

UK Cinema Admissions Tumble 30% Below Pre-Covid Levels https://deadline.com/2026/02/uk-cinema-admissions-bfi-covid-1236709922/ Many films are made for, and released dirst on, streaming channels. Many people are willing to wait to see a film (children excepted!)

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glasgowgeg@reddit

That's a different argument, and you're still not addressing what I've actually said. >Many films are made for, and released dirst on, streaming channels Yeah, not cinema releases, so not competition. You're just embarrassing yourself by refusing to read the words in front of you at this point.

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Ok-Explanation1990@reddit

Many films in cinemas are out on streaming within a few weeks of being in the cinema, because the studios can make just as much money from home streaming as they can cinema. This has kind of broken the cobwebs business model.

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glasgowgeg@reddit

It's most commonly 1-2 months, but not usually an overlapping release. They come out after they leave the cinemas. So it's not competition for the reason I said, people aren't saying "Oh, lets watch Super Mario Galaxy at home instead of in the cinema" because it's not on streaming yet, and likely won't be for a good few weeks still.

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Zealousideal-Yam3169@reddit

More swimming pools please. They all seem to be sessions only around me and it's difficult to get a spot. I remember just turning up at a random time in the day and you could go for a swim.

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HollywoodBrownMusic@reddit

Easy: tax Amazon accordingly, cut small business a break when it comes to business rates and energy bills, and put a stop to greedy landlords fleecing everyone. It won't happen though.

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TremendousCustard@reddit

I like the idea of the high street but the shops all shut when everybody finishes work. Make it make sense.

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jake_folleydavey@reddit

Working retail is already hell, if you made the hours more unsociable you’d never get anyone to work in the shops

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BigFloofRabbit@reddit

There are more than 9 million people out of work, and none of them are keen to do the job?

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funusernam3@reddit

Do you mean 1.9 million?

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mightypup1974@reddit

I think it’s a bit chicken and egg though. Workers are reluctant to work weird hours, but also businesses are reluctant to open on those hours without guarantee there’ll be enough shopping footfall to make it profitable, and customers are less keen to shop that late as they have stuff to do.

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EfficientRegret@reddit

I’ve got an unemployed mate who’d happily work 4 til midnight in a bakery (close at 10 and clean after) and I’d love to get sausage rolls at 9pm at night. Unfortunately work is not pleasant, that’s why you’re paid for it

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glasgowgeg@reddit

> I’ve got an unemployed mate who’d happily work 4 til midnight in a bakery (close at 10 and clean after) and I’d love to get sausage rolls at 9pm at night Is the bakery making enough sales at 9pm to cover the additional costs of staying open until then though? If they were, why wouldn't they do it currently?

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NedRyerson350@reddit

I work 4 till midnight stacking shelves in Asda. It's shite but certainly much better than being unemployed.

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EfficientRegret@reddit

Did the same in an unnamed supermarket, was a blast, now earn double a few years later sitting behind a desk. But I’ll never forget the aisles that I come from

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BigFloofRabbit@reddit

See I would happily pay more for food and less for white collar services so that retail workers earn more. I say that as someone who now also earns more in a desk job than I did working in retail. My current job is a doss comparatively

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EfficientRegret@reddit

My job is also a lot more laid back and "easy" then when i worked in a supermarket. But anyone can put things on a shelf, the skills i have and my role is very specialised, hence being paid more than the "walk through the door and pick up a box" job

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EyeAware3519@reddit

Don't be silly, it's not the same person working every hour the shop is open! Shifts are a thing!

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jake_folleydavey@reddit

Where have I said that? Working retail IS hell. Retail shops who open daytime hours often struggle to fill positions, so they’d obviously struggle more if people think they’ll be working till god knows when at night. I’ve never said no one at all wants to work them, but a lot of people don’t.

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EyeAware3519@reddit

The only reason they struggle to get staff if because pay is shit. I have worked retail in a few different places and it's mostly fine as long as you're not afraid of a bit of hard work. But it is hard work and the pay nowhere near reflects that.

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jake_folleydavey@reddit

That’s one of the reasons, yes. And making the hours more unsociable, as much as that would be better from a business point of view, would give another reason for people to not apply for that position. Again, that’s not everyone.

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jordsta95@reddit

Even if we assume businesses can't afford to do shifts, they could very easily move their hours by just an hour and have a better chance of making more business. There's a few shops on our local high street which are open 9am-4:30pm. Simply opening 10am-5:30pm would give more people a chance to actually buy from them. You're still hiring for the same number of hours, and it's not drifting into unsociable working hours. The number of customers who can only shop between 9-10am surely cannot be more than the customers you'd be able to get from being open as people get back from work?

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spaceandthewoods_@reddit

You're telling me all the young people who are having a nightmare of a time finding pub/ retail part time work wouldn't do two 5-9pm shifts a week after college? These shift patterns in pubs are the lifeblood of teenage first jobs.

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BlunanNation@reddit

Never understood why major retail stores in regular working days close at 5:30 to 6pm. Why not stay open till 10pm? Hell, if its labour costs just open the shop after 10am. Don't think many shops get much business in the early hours of a working day anyway.

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CeresToTycho@reddit

Oh it's totally this. I live near a retail park with the likes of Next, B&Q, Pets At Home etc which are all open until 8pm. I'm there regularly because they're open when I'm available. Often times, I go there even if I could buy online because i can have the item now, or I can try it on or see it in person. High street shops closed before I finish work and close up early on Sundays.

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Greedy-Mechanic-4932@reddit

My local high street / market town centre has shops that open 10-4 during the week, and 9-5 on a Saturday. On Sundays, when the parking is free, the shops are closed. And then there are the shops that are open on Tuesday (or any other day) one week but not the next... without advertising, it's just pot luck whether they'll be open or closed. It's slowly turning into a street of charity shops and coffee shops.

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Werthead@reddit

I worked retail in Ireland and the UK. Where I worked in Ireland the shops stayed open until 7pm and 9pm on one designated night (Thursday for us) and we had a mixture of totally dead and surprisingly brisk evening trade. In the UK whenever we tried this, it just didn't work, or it worked once as a novelty and immediately dried up, apart from Christmas and maybe the week before. I think the habit in the UK of clocking off and going straight home, and if you needed something from town you went on the weekends, or in an emergency the nearest big supermark, was just too ingrained.

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bored_toronto@reddit

> just too ingrained. Yep. I'd never go shopping for stuff after work when I lived in the UK; it was a Saturday activity.

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BuddyLegsBailey@reddit

Yet it's been like this forever. I don't belive l believe that people are going to finish work and then find somewhere to park, then wander around to buy something they normally just order online. And then go home and make tea?

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Yorkshire_rose_84@reddit

Look at the US. Stores stay open til 10pm. I know people want to go home and be tucked up in bed but even staying open that little bit later will make it survive. Maybe not opening at 9. Having different hours on different days of the weeks

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Cheap-Vegetable-4317@reddit

10 is a bit much but even closing at 7 helps.

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Puzzledandhangry@reddit

They have stopped opening shops at 9 in my area (not all) and it’s awful. There are literally people waiting outside for them to open, me included, because it’s always been 9. It works with society to open at 9 eg people take kids to school then pop to town. Or elderly people get up get ready then pop to town. We are the majority of shoppers anyway so why do that?

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EyeAware3519@reddit

Not just the US, basically every other country.

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Zubi_Q@reddit

Yep, shutting at 5pm is fucking stupid. I don't get back to the town centre until 5.30pm. All I ask is for 6pm closing!

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badger906@reddit

It would make more sense to change the hours of everyone not in retail! there’s huge logistics behind the scenes, deliveries, delivery companies, transportation blah blah that would all need to switch. There as everyone in office or what not could just work different hours.

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TazTazTAZTazTaz_@reddit

No they’re not. Very few high street stores close at 5pm.

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Emergency-Ad-5379@reddit

If you want it to go back to the olden days of butchers and bakers and candlestick makers, I don't think that's happening. But purely filling units and drawing people in to the area, I think legalised weed would actually do a lot of good there, with opportunities for weed cafes and dispenseries. Though they seem like a blight, vape shops have filled spaces which may have otherwise remained empty. Though I wonder if a lot of vape shops would double up as weed shops. Having said that the smell and behaviour of the customers would become an issue so perhaps councils would have the power to restrict them to a particular part of the highstreet.

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donell_walter@reddit

I think the problem with UK high streets is that they’ve been built around spending money, not everyday living. So when people cut back (which is happening now), everything struggles — fewer visitors, empty shops, and less social life. 1. Shift to a mainland European mixed-use model Places in Netherlands or Germany work because they combine: - housing above shops - cafés, services, and essentials - walkable public spaces People don’t just visit — they live there, which keeps areas active all day. 2. Bring residents back into town centres Convert empty upper floors and unused buildings into housing. More residents = consistent footfall and natural activity. 3. Move beyond retail-only High streets should include: - gyms, co-working, healthcare - community spaces So people have reasons to go that aren’t just spending. 4. Accept lower consumer spending With rising costs and online shopping (e.g. Temu), the old “endless retail” model isn’t sustainable. 5. Make social life less pay-to-participate More seating, public squares, and free spaces so people can just exist and connect. Bottom line: High streets won’t recover by adding more shops. They recover when they become places people live in, not just places people spend in.

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Emergency-Ad-5379@reddit

I would add improved public transport and more enforcement over keeping rowdy teens from dominating the area and intimidating productive people away. But yes making high streets more of a community centre again rather than a purely retail zone is the way.

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Redditbrit@reddit

I think mixed use is key. 20-40 years ago, high streets were pretty much all businesses with one or two flats over shops etc here & there. As stores moved out, the High Streets became more empty as we all switch to more convenient shopping. Now in the towns where old offices etc have converted to residential use, we’re seeing more small shops at food places pop up which in turn is bringing people and business back to an extent. Build communities and give people a reason to come.

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bored_toronto@reddit

> Make social life less pay-to-participate i.e. we need more "Third Spaces" where you can hang out and not be expected to pay for the privilege.

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NicSky001@reddit

We need to apply business rates to all online shops and or remove business rates from physical stores. Also we need to make vat 0% on food and drinks bought in cafes, pubs and restaurants. Simple changes for a better community life.

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Miserable_Future6694@reddit

To have the shop staffed even by the owner you'll need to put roughly £150 through a till before you can even think about paying the bills or making any profit. Im sure it gets demoralising pretty quickly when you see bills with two zeros on and all you have is change in the till. No point putting sales on because the footfall isn't even there to start with

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Immediate-Cow-6183@reddit

1) Online shopping. 2) High parking charges in town centres. 3) Out of town shopping centres encouraged and even built by councils themselves. 4) The police and councils allowing town centres to be taken over by beggars and homeless. 5) Shoplifting on an industrial scale , encouraged by the lack of policing and absence of effective penalties when prosecuted. 5) Dozens of dodgy grocers , vape shops and mobile hone shops with garish lighting and frontages operating as cover for criminal activities like money laundering , selling stolen goods and smuggled cigarettes. These shops drive out honest traders who can't compete. 6) Empty building allowed to become eyesores by property developers so as to pressurise councils to relax controls on planning so they can demolish often listed buildings These all apply in the city I live in which is a busy tourist town. The situation is much worse in a standard town where there is no steady stream of tourists. The solution? Local councils doing their job! Compulsory purchase of derelict buildings. Enforcing council policy on shop lighting and frontage. No more out of town retail developments. The police doing their job : stopping beggars . Policing illegal activities in shops. Unfortunately all our politicians are engaged in lining their own pockets and couldn't give a flying f##k!

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Hour-Background-7932@reddit

Key is bringing people back to living in these centres. What happened is people moved away from the town centres, would rather shop at a retail park than high street as its inconvenient. Trouble is development isn’t financially viable in a lot of these town centres, so councils are doing the planning/ demo themselves then getting developers in to finish the job, answer is mixed use, resi led regeneration of the town centres, this is why Homes England had such a large fund £46bn or so to underpin these viability challenged sites.

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North_Tie2975@reddit

Tax Amazon, to the point that it is cheaper to go to the shops...... That is it!

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TheeDeme@reddit

Online shopping is some-what to blame. Why take a trip into town when you can purchase it from home? You know the item will definitely be available and you don't need to move. Therefore, laziness wins. However, the high street/town shopping could be fixed by creating original stores. Do we really need five discount stores? Or vape stores? I want to be able to find unique gifts or services that I can't easily access online. Therefore, sadly, to revive it, the high street needs to become an experience of its own (consider how everyone loves attending Christmas markets or makers markets). Growing up, I loved going shopping because I didn't know what I would find or come home with. Now, it's the same five or ten stores/ideas that appear. We need to pump funding into the high street, create an experience that cannot be matched by online, and create stores that are both needed and wanted.

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Voice_Still@reddit

Increase disposable income.

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Specific_Club_7640@reddit

The UK populace buys most things online. We need to boycott companies like amazon & buy local.

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LuHamster@reddit

I would of said look at places like Japan and replicate it but then realised it would never work because it's just too costly to do anything in the UK. Rent is too expensive, prices of goods too expensive, food, drink, electricity too expensive. You can't have a booming vast street with tons and tons of things to do like Osaka or Tokyo when everything costs so much. An example here people can afford to eat breakfast at a chain gyudon place, go get a coffee at a café, go watch a film, then go spend the day shopping then spend the night at an izakaya drinking all you can drinks for £7. You could do many one to three of those things in the UK without it becoming too expensive for the average person to do on a regular basis. It's costs the UK costs are completely fucked up and nothing will ever change until costs are brought down but that will never happen because of the never ending spiral of decline the UK faces.

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ExultentPisces@reddit

High streets don’t exist for the sake of existing. They’re there because people require whatever service or product is being offered. It’s like asking “how do we save all the VCR repair businesses?” High streets are not a requirement for everyday life like they once were. Town centre high streets should be scaled to whatever demand there is for them.

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suckingalemon@reddit

The fact that people don’t get this astounds me.

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MacViller@reddit

I think people get it they just intuit that having a communal centre with local businesses and services is a good thing and it'd be sad to lose it and have towns just become big dormitories.

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audigex@reddit

I think most people get it, but want to work out how to make it so that a smaller right-sized town centre can survive You tend to hit a point where the big department stores, clothes shops etc closing reduces footfall to the point that even the shops that \*should\* be there, just can't survive either

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Superb_Literature547@reddit

but again, anything that \*should\* be there will have customers. a dentist isn't going to close down because the wilko closed down up the street.

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audigex@reddit

A dentist is unlikely to be on the high street in the first place, surely? They have no need to be on one, they’re quite well suited to being a little out of the way

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PhysicsForeign1634@reddit

Many people don't have the money for the servicea.being offered. Businesses depend on customers; when the customer has been beaten down by austerity and wage stagnation, how can they support the high street in a meaningful way. Bills come first.

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bucket_of_frogs@reddit

[Who’s going to save the Buggy Whip industry?”](https://allen.associates/career-roadmap/the-decline-of-the-buggy-whip-industry-a-tale-of-technological-evolution)

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DevSiarid@reddit

Firstly introduce free parking.

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jonewer@reddit

This type of comment always amazes me. Go to just about any town or city in Europe and it will have a pedestrianised town centre that's absolutely thriving with small shops, cafes, restaurants, bars etc. but the perpetual refrain of the Briton aggrieved at not having this at home is for more free parking.

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DamnitGravity@reddit

100%. I see so much more bustling life in the suburb my parents live in because so much of the parking in the area is free.

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discoveredunknown@reddit

People will cry and moan about online shopping killing it, but I live near a regenerated shopping centre-cum-high street and it’s packed out every single weekend/weekday. Difference? Privately owned and funding. Empty shops aren’t there for more than a few weeks, always pop-up events, small festivals going on. Local councils are stuck in the dark ages and are incapable of figuring out how to generate footfall. Free weekends for parking etc. reduced rates, discount for a pop-up

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jonewer@reddit

So the council owns the local Greggs, Sainsburys, and McDonalds? Who knew.

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MLC1974@reddit

Whereabouts are you based if you don't mind me asking?

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matto1990@reddit

Most town centres aren't council owned and run. Buildings and units are owned by many different companies, investers, and landlords. They often have more of an incentive to keep rent hight in the long-term, and are happy to take the hit short-term with empty units. Unless the council is specifically focused on it (unusal), then it's also usually up to businesses and community groups themselves to organise events locally. The council will work with them, but they're rarely the instigators. The main mechenism for creating some structure to improve a town centre is a [Business Improvment District (BID)](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/business-improvement-districts). We have one of these locally which is funded by a small fee on all businesses in the area (with reduced rates and opt-out for small businesses, higher and compulsary rates for chains). They: * Organise the weekly market. * Run half a dozen annual events such as food festivals. * Run a town centre gift card scheme where you can buy a gift card to spend in any partisipating local small business, rather than getting a gift card for a chain. * Have security staff on the street itself coordinating with store security. They also act as a "union" of sorts to represent town centre business interests to the council and other stakeholders like unitiy companies which are causing road clousures and access issues around town. [https://worthingtowncentre.co.uk/business-improvement-district/](https://worthingtowncentre.co.uk/business-improvement-district/) I think if a BID is well run then they can massively help keep a town centre alive and well. They're only set up if local businesses want them though, so it requires some will power and effort on their part. Complaining is usually easier unfortunatly...

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oscarsowner@reddit

Our local town has a very active BID and they also offer gift cards for that specific town. But they’re still suffering. Why? Business rates are the main killer. But the second reason is that everyone likes to shop online from their armchair. They don’t have to pay for car parking or wrestle with fellow shoppers. And after all that, they avoid going into a shop to be told “sorry, we don’t stock this in the store but you can buy it online.”

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mr-tap@reddit

I agree that the current business rates system does not fairly spread the burden. I think that it is symptomatic of the entire UK tax system, which needs a top to bottom restructure & not just tweaking here and there

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matto1990@reddit

Yep, it's not a sure fire solution. It relies on shops adapting to the current reality and offering something that online shops can't. They either need to: Offer an "in-person experience" such as board game cafe's, games arcades, pottery painting, or events like "knit and natter" (stich and bitch) or book clubs. Offer unique products such as local foods or products from small independent creators. The gift shop on the seafront of Worthing only stock local and unique products and they're a destination when you want to get someone a nice unique gift or greetings card. Offer the convinience of having exactly what you need available right there and then. A good hardware shop can do this for a lot of jellybean parts, and to be honest I think Argos is amazing for 75% of what people use Amazon for. -- It's no longer good enough to just have a shop with some products on the shelves. You need to make it a destination or give it some other unique selling point in some way. Again, a lot of shops which have been going for a while seem to have struggled with this and have died off because they just kept doing what has worked in the past without changing and adapting.

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JadedAlready@reddit

ah yeah, more privatisation, that'll fix everything!

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SiriusRay@reddit

As opposed to nationalizing high streets and opening up…job centres?

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Teembeau@reddit

Where is that? The big difference between Swindon and towns around with busy shops like Bath or Cirencester is money. If people are affluent in a town, you get lots of luxury shops. Organic bakeries, cheeseshops, a Rolex stockist. In fact, if you go from the town centre of Swindon up to Wood St, which is a more affluent area, it's like this. Those people have the money for a £40/kg Paxton and Whitfield cheddar and want the personal service that comes with it. Most people don't have that sort of money and are happy buying the extra mature cheese at £7/kg from Tesco or Waitrose. Small shops are horribly inefficient compared to supermarkets or retail shopping.

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phatboi23@reddit

> > Difference? Privately owned and funding. most aren't aren't council owned buildings, i know my high street is all owned by a few different landlords and they take the absolute piss with rent.

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AnyWalrus930@reddit

Councils don’t own many high streets. Big chunks will often be owned by some institutional investors or other, and they have very little interest in cutting rents because it damages the underlying value of their portfolio. Rents stay high even when shops are empty and in turn business rates stay high because no one wants to say rentable values are mostly nonsense.

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EyeAware3519@reddit

I honestly struggle to see the point in local councils, they are just a small extra layer of government that achieves nothing.

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Euphoric_Wish_8293@reddit

I wouldn't much fancy visiting a cum highstreet.

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MTW27@reddit

Same, my high street is busy. The secret is that a modern high street has to offer services / experiences and not just “stuff” - that way of retailing has been obsoleted by online shopping.

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ZulfTalks@reddit

Make the stores stat up till at least 8pm have free tea coffee and entertainment for families while we are there we will buy stuff and spend time there as thats whats missing at the moment in the online method.

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robjamez72@reddit

There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. Out-of-town retail parks and supermarkets with free parking seemed great at first, but they were a big nail in the coffin of town centres. If everyone shopping out-of-town was in a town centre, they’d be heaving!

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Acceptable-Heron6839@reddit

Build 4-5 storey blocks with shops, cafes, and restaurants on the ground floor and apartments on the other floors. This gives the optimum density of people to patronise the ground floor businesses out of convenience. This sort of planning is dense enough to create a sense of community without losing the suburban charm of the high street. Suburban high streets that you have to drive to and pay to park at just can’t compete with the convenience of retail parks, major city centres, and online shopping.

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Raaka-Kake@reddit

Extinction of the middle class, due to labor losing the fight to capital.

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afungalmirror@reddit

The internet was invented. This frees up the space previously required for high streets and the like to be put to other uses. I suggest replacing buildings no longer needed with gardens and parks, promoting biodiversity as well as community spaces for people to enjoy nature.

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Longjumping_Ant4453@reddit

the high street needs to sell what people want, most don't and then complain about no customers

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dancarebear@reddit

You won’t. It’s too far gone. If councils had done more forward thinking, they would have put stronger planning in place to keep offices in city centres — which would bring people in. The high street was always going to decline… but it would have been replaced by places for food, drinks, and quick purchases. That would also have increased housing in city centres. Councils could then justify improving public transport, because people would actually need to get into town — and city centres wouldn’t feel like ghost towns. But instead… we got out-of-town office parks. Out-of-town retail parks. That pulled people away from city centres. Then the internet arrived — and that was the death of the high street.

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cupidstunt01@reddit

I once spent a week in Swindon one day last year.

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OK_Cake05@reddit

Be open past 5pm Have more third spaces Reduce rents and businesses rates for local/small businesses

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AmusableThread@reddit

Create more homes in these areas to create some footfall. Set up some nice eateries, lower business rates and rents and provide support to independent start-ups. Ample free parking. Greed has killed the High Street, not the internet.

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UnSpanishInquisition@reddit

I mean your first mistake was going to Swindon on a day trip 🙃 I lived on the high street for 3 years whilst working on GWEP worst place I've ever lived.

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2roundabout@reddit

The places that have done well here have shifted from retail towards activities and food. E.g. Tunbridge Wells has avoided the endless vape shops, Turkish Barbers and endless charity shops. There are a lot of independent food places and experiences available. E.g minigolf, darts, escape rooms other sports. However that is achievable when you have a largely older and wealthy demographic that can support these businesses. For other places I really am not sure what can be done. I mean start getting HMRC to target the clearly money laundering front shops would be a good start.

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StereotypicalAussie@reddit

Charity shops don't pay rates, vat, corporation tax, they don't pay for stock, largely don't pay for staff, so don't pay national insurance or pension contributions. This frees up a lot of money to pay for rent. So they drive up rent, squeezing out other business. Landlords like them because they won't go bust, and customers actively go out of their way to support them. How can normal businesses compete with that?

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StereotypicalAussie@reddit

Charity shops don't pay rates, vat, corporation tax, they don't pay for stock, largely don't pay for staff, so don't pay national insurance or pension contributions. This frees up a lot of money to pay for rent. So they drive up rent, squeezing out other business. Landlords like them because they won't go bust, and customers actively go out of their way to support them. How can normal businesses compete with that?

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WhoLets1968@reddit

Internet shopping killed the high street and we are not going to put that genie back in that bottle And it's only going to get worse as the next generation who live on their phones so so much on it, are more likely to simply buy off Amazon, eBay etc Best we can do is reimagine the cities to be places to live...like it was pre industrial times Many of our cities have buildings that are now shopping centres or shopping areas that back in the 18C and early 19C were townhouses for the rich...who also had country houses... So city living was the norm and it was only when industrial revolution lead to many moving from countryside to cities did the rich move out. Some of the major cities like London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds have started to build more city centre accommodation, albeit flats and apartments. But with shops dying out ...and business rates killing them off...some of these places don't need to be seen as expensive areas (but they will) but if society didn't, it could build houses not flats. I understand Leeds has demolished what was an industrial park just on the outskirts of it's city centre, in a place called kirkstall road that used to house factories....now building homes and streets, not apartment blocks...and people can walk about 10 mins and be in the very centre It may become a blueprint for how cities may change

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Background-Ebb-9366@reddit

Get rid of the Internet 🤣 🤣 🤣 I'm not suggesting it, but it's the only way unfortunately.

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DinosaurSr2@reddit

Tax websites per UK visitor and use some of that revenue to fund reduced business rates and subsidies for local businesses to open physical shops, cafes etc. Websites that don’t pay the tax get blocked in UK. It would de-incentivise things like misleading clickbait, and algorithms that encourage doomscrolling, and help to encourage local businesses to open physical outlets and have a presence in their communities. Places lose their sense of community without shared spaces like physical shops and cafes and people lose their mind and become paranoid and bigoted as a direct result of spending too much time online instead of being out and about in the real world.

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Scowlin_Munkeh@reddit

Add a cultural element to them. Pop-up museums, galleries, theatre, cinema etc. Even when the high street is booming I just don’t go there because it’s just shopping, and I have no interest in shopping. Get something interesting in those spaces.

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Witty_Entry9120@reddit

Out of interest, how much would you be willing to spend, weekly, in each of these places?

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Scowlin_Munkeh@reddit

Depends what it is. If it was a HENGE gig I’d be happy to pay £30-£50. If it was a gallery, and I really liked the art, I’d throw £50-£200 to purchase a work to support the artist/venue. Theatre, again, £30-£50. But perhaps Arts Council funded stuff could exist in those spaces. What would you like to see in those spaces, and what do you think it might cost?

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Witty_Entry9120@reddit

So you're potentially spending £300 every week on this? Is that right?

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ElephantSudden4097@reddit

I think many people will do, maybe not £300 though.

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Dazzling_Evidence_19@reddit

We should use parts for housing and parts for leisure, cafes gyms libraries etc. I walked around Leeds recently and kept thinking how great some of the mostly empty covered arcades would be if converted into assisted living housing for elderly or disabled people.

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MLC1974@reddit

What arcades in Leeds are mostly empty? 🤔

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Dalekbuster523@reddit

The only way the high streets will be livened up again is by focusing more on leisure. We need to build more theatres and tourist attractions, and rely more on multi screen cinemas. Give people reasons to go into town and city centres as shopping isn’t a reason anymore when you can just do it at home.

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PigletAlert@reddit

You make shops click and collect shops with fast delivery. Have them open until 10pm and make parking free. Other than that you accept that people don’t want to shop in them anymore and you find something else to do with the space.

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CCFC1998@reddit

The ones doing well are the ones tailored to experiences (I.e. activities, restaurants, cafes and pubs/ bars) over shopping and that also have higher density of people living in the immediate vicinity. The high street in its traditional form is not coming back, its a relic of a bygone era. It has to adapt to modern people's lives and desires.

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Dead_route@reddit

Extra money and time got people to spend it

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Lewis19962010@reddit

High street shopping of old is dead and buried, any one trying to save it is throwing good money after bad. Town centres could be revived if the council ditched their "save the high street" nonsense and transform them into residential areas with a smaller retail footprint and focus the funding on the town centre itself providing meaningful activities and events that draw people in. Sensibly priced Evening markets, food festivals and local art exhibitions Not sure if this is every town but in mine They would also need to curtail the anti social behaviour and congregating of drug addicts trying to scrounge "a couple quid for bus fare" that we all know isn't for bus fare and who hurl abuse at people walking by ignoring them

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fursty_ferret@reddit

Have a look at what business rates are for your local high street businesses and you'll see why only the betting shops (can afford them) and illegal vape shops (don't bother to pay) survive.

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Suspicious_Banana255@reddit

We don't need shops when we can get most things online. There's an argument for clothes shops staying so you can try things on, other than that they need replacing with entertainment, restaurants and specialist places.

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jeminar@reddit

I urge industries to set up showrooms. If I want a new coat, let me go to a place where every manufacturer has every coat to try on. Then I buy online. The idea is actually buying in a shop is dead, but sometimes we need to touch, feel, listen before buying

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DeadParr0t@reddit

I don't want a high street, I want a retal park outside the city with loads of multistory parking and I dont care what it looks like, I visit for shortest time possible. Separately I want a nice area with cafes, restaurants, parks, playgrounds, sports facilities, museums and historical buildings where I can go and relax, spend the day, this should be the new town centre setup.

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Comfortable-Fall1419@reddit

TBF Swindon high street was a shit hole 20 years ago too. Beruit we used to call it (with apologies to the current residents of Beruit)

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The_39th_Step@reddit

Swindon is genuinely bleak. I live in Manchester, and for the most part high streets are faring MUCH better. My grandparents live near Swindon, so I know it well, and apart from one shop it’s terrible. Visit The Forum if you get the chance. It’s a great menswear shop.

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beseeingyou18@reddit

Honestly, it's better than a lot of other places. It doesn't match up to Manchester of course, but there are plenty of towns and cities in this country that are significantly worse than Swindon. The issue isn't Swindon per se, it's that almost every location outside of the Top 5 cities in the UK is a dive.

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The_39th_Step@reddit

I’ll take your word for it but, last time I visited central Swindon, I was astounded how much worse it’s got

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beseeingyou18@reddit

No, my point is that **everywhere** has got worse. Swindon town centre was undoubtedly better in the 2000s...but so was everywhere else.

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The_39th_Step@reddit

Many parts of Manchester has got better. Liverpool has got better. Not everywhere has got worse honestly.

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ProtonHyrax99@reddit

Manchester seems to be doing really well overall. I think it’s at least partially down to the team network. It’s really easy to get around.

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The_39th_Step@reddit

The tram network certainly helps - having a functioning public transport system is crucial and ours is the best outside of London. I believe Edinburgh’s is good too. There’s a whole lot of reasons for Manchester’s success. It’s long term thinking and planning dating back to the 80s and 90s.

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HoboStrider@reddit

TBH they are mostly property portfolios for large chains...they aren't there to be stores..that's a big issue.

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LethargicOnslaught@reddit

Make parking free, I'm not driving to the high streets nearest car park, paying £5 for the first hour, £6.50 for up to 2hrs or £12 for all day parking.

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Mighty-Wings@reddit

1. Fix business rates, reduction for independents, increase for corporations. 2. Pop up spaces for people wanting to try. There are several traditional markets near me that offer a free pitch each month to help encourage start ups with little capital risk. 3. Parking, most has been sold off or is being used to prop up ineffective councils. Price it right and people will come. 4. Make them look nice, add some planters, bins, seating. Most are devoid of anything other than rubbish and beggars. 5. Events, having something different brings people in. Weekly or monthly markets, summer fayres, I have even witnessed teddy bear absailing in my travels. 6. Be convenient, works for parking and opening hours. Even if its once a week, have a late opening, say 8 or 9. The council could encourage restaurant offers, some live local music and late night shopping. Most of all, remind people that the major corps give zero fucks about you and purposely drive engagement to get you to spend. Local shops are so important to communities and spending there makes a real difference.

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purenet1995@reddit

Free carparking

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web3monk@reddit

Places that have something going for them beyond shopping are doing well, or at least weathering. Not only tourist destinations, but places people like to go to spend the day because of nice views, parks, rivers, canals, seaside, natural attractions, restaurants, cultural places like theatres, galleries or statues, etc. So I think the answer is make places nice beyond shopping and they'll revive somewhat or at least morph into something still alive.

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Expensive_Novel1818@reddit

You might just be the first person in history to take a day trip to Swindon.

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SearchLightsInc@reddit

Cap the rents of landlords - council buy if they decide to sell) offer introductory business fees, start a campaign to encourage people to spend time (not necessarily money) in the town centres. I think people would happily move away from SOME online shopping if they can be given a positive experience.

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jc456_@reddit

You should see Stoke, my gosh what a shit hole

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gggggenegenie@reddit (OP)

Oh god yes you're right! Went there a couple of years back and was shocked.

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tom-mart@reddit

I would start with opening times that are actually for people with money. I wpuld buy more on the high street if anything was open when I'm not at work.

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Spottyjamie@reddit

My city tried that, 3 out of 7 days was 7pm closing Wasnt busy enough even with free parking after 3pm

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Reeelfantasy@reddit

Because people want to drink beer after work!

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Spottyjamie@reddit

Problem is since the mid 00s loads of employment moved out of city centres to trading estates arse end of neewhere meaning the only workers in town were shops/pubs/cafe

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badger906@reddit

People keep saying this. But nobody thinks about it. When do shops get deliveries? In the day! Why? Because that’s when transport companies work! For a shop to open at night, you’d need the transport industry to change. So all companies that require logistics would also have to change. And then all of a sudden everyone works the same hours again. Then you could say “get staff on the day do deliveries” great! The biggest bill a company has is wages, and you now have to double it.

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tom-mart@reddit

If only it was possible to open shops, lets say at midday and close them at 10pm, rather than 8am to 6pm. Ypu could catch those inflexible deliveries and serve your clients with disposable income.

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badger906@reddit

But that would still cause logistical issues for delivery firms. They’d have to plan every route to avoid all retail stores till 10am. Instead of being able to do retail and domestic deliveries all in the same area. I get most of my dhl, evri and fedex deliveries around 9am, because there’s a huge housing estate they do first. And that’s also not thinking about B2B deliveries. They’ll send a van out and deliver all their stuff to their customers. All of a sudden that role gets shifted around, which will also affect that companies loading teams and office staff.

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tom-mart@reddit

Right. And you think making deliveries to shops that have no customers is a better business decision for everyone involved? If there were shops open to 10pm, then there would delivery companies making deliveries at 10pm. It's not unheard of, you know. Supermarkets all get deliveries during night or early mornings and somwhow it works.

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badger906@reddit

They get deliveries when it’s their turn on the delivery sheet. They don’t sent an artic lorry to every store.. the same one will go to multiple. Also go to your local supermarket at 9pm. See how busy it is. Then compare that to day time. And tell me the difference. People don’t shop in the evening. There’s a reason why most shopping centres stopped their late night day. Do you not think smarter people than you and I would have thought your idea was the secret and tried it by now? Please tell me the store breaking record sales with unconventional opening hours. There isn’t one.. so I guess all company owners and share holders aren’t as smart as you! Go open Tom-Mart and prove me wrong!

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tom-mart@reddit

Gues what, they don't send artic lorry to River Island every day either. Not sure what your point is at this stage.

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badger906@reddit

No they’ll get van deliveries…

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lazylimpet@reddit

It needs to be less shopping and more experience-based. I will not go to town to buy clothes, but I will go to get a coffee, go to a group, or play sport. There are so many clothes shops and they are so unnecessary. Make community spaces, places for experience and connection, and I think some of the life would come back. A lot of the shops could also reasonably be converted to houses, so more people live in the city center.

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Altruistic-Wing-2715@reddit

Extra legislation to make Amazon pay their taxes.

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DippyDragon@reddit

I like a wander around the high street but I rarely buy anything as the selection is poor and the prices well above what's available online. I only go with a purpose for haircuts and the opticians or to collect something I've ordered online but want same day, usually Argos. So yeah, I think that's the crux of it, what is the purpose of the high street now? Why should we fix them?

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patatas6939@reddit

"Come friendly bombs and rain on Slough It isn't fit for humans now"

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palpatineforever@reddit

Ironically the high street as we knew it was a comparatively short lived thing. Traditionally towns would have a couple of shops but not the numbers we had by the end of the 20th century. You would go to bigger towns if you needed any specific or order it via mail. This is why some bigger towns are still doing okay as people can see it as more of a day out. Basically is an argument that they were unsustainable in their old formate and once ecommerce started so rather than going wrong they just died out. finding new ways to use the space for communities should be the focus not revitalising in the way people thing.

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davey-jones0291@reddit

Im not quite old enough to be sure but it does seem like the high street peaked in the 80s & 90s when wages were still reasonable compared to prices and the tax burden was a bit lower. At some point the councils and landlords need to bite the bullet and sell for housing. The economic conditions that kept the high street healthy are gone for good.

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Sharp-Ad-3253@reddit

Good riddance. High streets full of trash chains that offer no value are not worth having.

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Terrible_Tale_53@reddit

If you are wanting to revive the high street you're going to have to kill online shopping and make rent affordable

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cragglerock93@reddit

If the goal is to revive the High Street as a street for shopping, absolutely. I don't see that as the best option, though.

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Terrible_Tale_53@reddit

I think part of the reason the high street has died is because they can't compete with online shopping sites like Amazon, temu, shein and the likes. To some people, if you can order to your door why bother going out. I suppose times have changed and we're are movies with that change.

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davey-jones0291@reddit

A physical shop is massively more expensive than even shipping from a uk warehouse nevermind the Chinese model. The maths doesn't math, look into it and you'll be amazed just how unfair a fight it is. High streets are going to gradually go away or be replaced with housing unless some kind of major government level changes are made.

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MermaidPigeon@reddit

More so the rent

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Terrible_Tale_53@reddit

I suppose they see no point staying if the rent is going to be too expensive and unjustifiable

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znv142@reddit

Wealth inequality. The high street is not dying in rich places. London, Manchester City Centre, Althringham, London etc - all have thriving high streets. On the contrary - it's difficult to open up a business in deprived areas. Fix wealth inequality, the high street will come back.

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CiderChugger@reddit

Wow you went to Swindon high street and lived to tell the tale. I am impressed

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BoneyFlare@reddit

Much like the property market and entertainment industries, the UK “high street” retail has now become the next source of systemic money laundering for international organised crime. No legitimate, local businesses can afford to pay commercial rents or overhead costs inflated by unregulated, limitless, criminal capital.

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PureDeidBrilliant@reddit

The decay really started setting in well before Amazon and online shopping took over, tbh. Blame it on the "chain-i-fication" of the high street. Every high street *must* have a Greggs, *must* have a Boots, *must* have this, that and everything else. These chains come in because it's cheap to out fit an empty store to their standards and it's just as cheap for them to up sticks and leave when things go bad. Some high streets are *done*. The best you can hope for some of them is that the empty shops can be repurposed into housing or, worse still, the ever-popular and nebulous "arts spaces". If you can't repurpose, demolition. It doesn't matter if a building is listed (we have way too many listed buildings in my opinion) - if it can't serve a function or if it's expensive to maintain? Flatten it. (Same goes for castles and stately homes as well)

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Otocolobus_manul8@reddit

People complain about online shopping and the like, but I've never seen high streets as bad, or as filled with chain businesses, as the UK.

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PureDeidBrilliant@reddit

It's the whole pathetic "well, X has a Starbucks, we need a Starbucks in Y too, and they've got a Wetherspoons in A, so we need one too..." No, that's how you kill high streets. You bring in the shitty big chains - and they *are* shit - and you price independents out of the market. That wee bakery your granny used to go to as a girl and when she was pushing your mum around in a pram? You can get a steak bake there now. The cafe you used to escape to as a teenager is now a soulless branch of a shit coffee conglomerate. And the pub you went to with your mates to celebrate turning 18? You're in for a rude awakening... It *is* depressing and it's the result of us being sold the lie of comfort and convenience.

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DrDrank101@reddit

1. Pedestrianise them. Only a small lane for buses & bike lanes with more trees and flowers. 2. Stop allowing shops to be ugly as sin & begone with shit tier shops. Tourist towns like those in the Cotswolds don't have issues with ugly shops as they keep them to a standard.

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Ysgramorsoupspoon@reddit

Its landlords

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Miss_Type@reddit

The high street in my little city is pretty busy and bustling most weekends. It has evolved and has lots of coffee shops, micro-pubs, and little cafes. It has different fairs at different times, like food, crafts, Christmas, vegan, and whatnot. People shop online and so the high street has to provide something else, it has to provide an experience, not just shops.

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Rocinante23@reddit

Consolidate remaining retailers into a smaller area, knock down the empty buildings. With the newly created space build affordable housing alongside green (parks) and social spaces (gyms, community centres).

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sharpecads@reddit

The cost to park. I’d go to town a lot more if I could either get there easier, or if parking was cheaper or free.

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dnf1957@reddit

We have anything and everything delivered in vans now. If not a van it's a moped or similar. The High Street doesn't stand a chance, annoying to think one these delivery companies is owned by someone very rich.

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Sirlacker@reddit

Yes. Reduce rent instead of increasing it. Allow first time business owners to give their shops a chance. You basically need good footfall from day one to run a shop. There is no opportunity to slowly build up a client base. You have to be popular from the second you open otherwise you're fucked. Alternatively, a website and a garage/storage unit as a warehouse is much cheaper to run whilst you build up a good client base, and then why would you open a shop and spend a fortune for no real good reason when your online business is already doing well. Where applicable, make paths wider in the high streets to allow restaurants and cafes and pubs to have a decent outdoor space on the front. People love to watch the world go by as they eat or drink. You don't get that from a garden at the rear. There should also be plenty of events being put on to draw people to the high street. Whether that's bands, magicians, chess day, beer tasting from the micro breweries, Easter egg hunts, Halloween festivities, bake off competitions, whatever. When you get people to come to the high street they usually spend whilst there. And when there is money being spent, places stay open.

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xxxxsteven@reddit

Shops that open at 9am and close at 5 or 6. No thanks ill go out of town. Leeds market is great but starts to shut down at 2pm

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Pukit@reddit

It’s too convenient to not go into town. I’d suggest free parking for two hours everywhere. That’s long enough to go into town, buy what you want, have a coffee etc. councils would scream blue murder about it, but parking rates these days are ridiculous. If you want to stay longer than two hours start bunging on £2 an hour or whatever.

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OscarsWhiskers@reddit

Repurposing the buildings are a good idea, going through Bristol last weekend, the old Debenhams has been turned into an indoor skatepark, Shred’nhams. Brilliant use of the building!

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Neat-Ostrich7135@reddit

Business rates So charging more for small high street shops than large mail order warehouses.

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thebarnsleymat@reddit

Visit Barnsley and see how it's done.

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IainMCool@reddit

Mixed use areas, create third places for people to go +and want to go) and make sure it's easy to get to without having to drive. People don't go to the High Street to shop anymore.

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snapper1971@reddit

Either shops are given the same tax and rates breaks as big box distribution centres, or big box distribution centres are charged the same as shops in terms of tax and rates. Shops carry a disproportionate burden of costs. Shopping in store carries a premium on time, and that effectively is a secondary burden. Do I want to go to the town centre or carry on with my life and what I'm doing knowing I can get what I need delivered to my door the next day and for cheaper than in a shop? Councils are running an out dated model of the high street and wondering why it's all gone to shit.

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Critical-Lettuce-503@reddit

We need to get away from big name retail, big box retail on high streets. Its fine having a handful them there but we got to a point where they were the dominant entities and that became a problem when they started failing, not least of all because they were there and also in the out of town shopping centre nearby and also online. They saturated their position and, when things got tight, they naturally ditched the most expensive place. In place of this we really need to foster value in experience over value in price. Manchester is a great example of this. Sure you can go and hit the familiar names on Deansgate, the Arndale centre etc where you're the same as everyone else, doing the same things and buying the same fashions. But you don't have to stray far to wind up in Castlefield, the Northern Quarter etc where you can find a niche store, food place, or bar that doesn't aim at the lowest common denominator but tries to serve a small portion of people that may or may not include you. And you pay in part for the experience rather than just the same good you could get delivered online. By all means you could go and hit Primark, M&S, Sports Direct etc inbetween trips to Greggs and Starbucks if that's all you want to do. But most people who want that, also want something else and that want is individual to them. Serve people's appetite for experiences.

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XihuanNi-6784@reddit

The main issue is regulation. People think online can beat everything like it's a law of nature. No, it's a symptom of regulations which make it cheaper to run an online warehouse than a high street shop. I think taxes should be raised on online stuff to make it more expensive, and lowered on normal shops. It's a straight forward fix. It wouldn't be politically easy, but it's not massively complicated. Tax policy has always been used to shape the market. We just pretend it isn't possible these days even though it's entirely still possible.

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Derfel60@reddit

Why? Physical shopping is more effort, more expensive and has less choice. It deserves to die.

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BroodLord1962@reddit

So you can shop online, more often than not getting it cheaper, or you can spend money getting into a town, either by public transport or your own car and spend money on fuel and a parking fee. 9 times out of ten doing the latter will add at least £5 onto the price of what you could have saved by buying it online.

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platon29@reddit

Landlords would need to accept that their buildings aren't as valuable any more because the Internet exists and people can shop online, so businesses don't suffocate on razer thin margins when most of their income is going on rent. This is especially true for independent small businesses.

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Dolgar01@reddit

This has been coming a long time. 14/15 years ago my wife was trying to buy a dress in an independent Alternative Fashion shop. They did not have her size. She asked if she could get it ordered in and owner explained the problem: Wholesalers won’t sell her one dress. They will sell a box, which is 5. Cost per box (this is rough figures) = £100. Each dress sells for £25 therefore, profit on a box of 5 = £25 (cost is £100, 5 at £25 each is £125). Great. Except, if you order a box of plus size dresses and only can sell 1, that’s now a loss of £75 AND a loss of storage. On top of that, physical shops have rent, rates, insurance, energy, staff etc etc. That person now deals exclusively online.

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OilAdministrative197@reddit

Gotta deal with the biggest cost which is the rental price of the units likely then business rates. Ive always thought a nice idea is some form of community ownership of the leases but then how do you efficiently decide which shops should be on the high street?

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ufos1111@reddit

Legalize cannabis, let coffee shops, dispenaries, etc open on the high street.

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princewinter@reddit

Unless Amazon disappears, you can't. I would love love LOVE highstreets to come back. I want shopping centres and Woolworths and having to go into town for things, and SEEING them in store before buying them. But there's just no point if Amazon can do it cheaper and send it straight to your door.

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SpecialistFarmer771@reddit

Where do you live where all of those aren't a thing lmao? I've travelled all over this country in recent years and myself come from one of the most deprived places in the nation and I've never seen what you claim. Town centres still packed even on weekdays with people socializing, going for food, shopping etc, even moreso on weekends. Shopping centres are f\*cking everywhere mate. Believe it or not but just because you are wasting your life and don't do things doesn't mean everyone else is.

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princewinter@reddit

Jfc who hurt you lmao. You do know not all of the UK is the same? This is a LITERAL POST about how the highstreet is declining and you're screaming at me about how it definitely isn't. All over the UK shops are closing down one after another. Idk if you live in the middle of a fucking city or something but that's not how it is in smaller and even some larger towns. The closest shopping centre to me is an hour drive. Is that.. okay with you? Is it okay with u/SpecialistFarmer771 that I don't live directly IN a shopping centre? Say the word and I'll stop wasting my life and move in the back ally next to one. Fuck me.

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Top_Document1723@reddit

We live in a society where the majority of people work 9-5 (or thereabouts). And what time do the shops on the high street operate? Perfect correlation. Most people who are available during the day don’t have the most disposable income: pensioners, unemployed, young mothers on maternity leave etc. Also, Amazon is convenient and there’s no traipsing from shop to shop trying to find a specific item. For people who live busy lives, of course they’re going to use Amazon.

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DMMMOM@reddit

I think about it the other way around. 200 years ago these places were fields, it can go back to being that way after we experimented with rampant, unsustainable capitalism and cancer like consumerism and it all turned out to be an absolutely terrible idea. Things move on, trends constantly change and even more so in this current digital climate. Soon the world will be flooded by so much Chinese crap that there will be an inevitable pushback to a more analogue and simple time. At least I do hope so, not that I'll be around.

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maxmarioxx_@reddit

You could fix the high street issue with one action alone - put a hefty tax on online shopping up to the point where all items bought online are just slightly more expensive than items purchased in a store. This will revitalise the high street.

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propostor@reddit

Absolutely cannot stand the common response of "it's because of the internet". There are plenty of societies with busy central areas and online shopping coexisting. To fix UK high streets it needs cheaper business rates and more places to live in the town/city centre.

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shark-with-a-horn@reddit

A lot of things have been pushed into retail parks which I think is a shame because retail parks don't really support small/independent businesses Independent businesses are still opening in high streets and getting no foot traffic because the big retailers have gone to retail parks I don't know what the answer is because I personally find retail parks soulless, a pain to get to unless you drive, but people are voting with their wallet...

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Lairyliam@reddit

I was going to say, kill amazon, but actually Killing the internet would be a better plan.

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xxdavidxcx87@reddit

Councils killed high streets off with limited and very expensive parking, they are quick to blame online shopping but charging £3 to park for 15 minutes is the real problem.

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morebob12@reddit

Not closing shops at 5pm during the week would be a good start. Working people who are also generally people who are more likely going to spend money at your shop work mon-fri 9-5. I visited Sweden and noticed a lot of shops opened later around 10/11am and closed at around 7pm. Makes much more sense. Also get rid of Sunday trading hours, like wtf are we doing?

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Not_Wrong_Tho@reddit

You can't. At least, you can't preserve what they were. High streets were shopping hubs, we've barely needed them since supermarkets took off, and we have almost no use for them in that capacity today. You can't save a thing with no purpose. What we need to do is move on from them, acknowledge that modern society isn't built the same way and find ways of building new spaces that work with modern society; not against it. Some of these spaces may re-use the high street; but the high street isn't exactly ideally built for that transition.

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tokyowatchguy@reddit

Yeah unfortunately most cities in the world are like this. Japan is facing a similar situation with population decline and entire villages dissapearing with highstreet shops abandoned in many cities outside of Tokyo.

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Mald1z1@reddit

Business rates and rent are way too high. Outside of London public transport and buses have majorly declined and sre abysmal. Residential rents and council tax is also way too high and people have less disposible income.

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steak-connoisseur@reddit

To fix high street shops we need to tax online businesses who don’t have a high street presence. Case in point Amazon. ASOS.

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Sea-Hour-6063@reddit

High streets need to offer something different to just commerce. Also business rates and shitty corporate landlords.

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Cheap-Vegetable-4317@reddit

Out of town shopping centres and Amazon between them have done a piece of work on town centres, but also big landlords owned by investment companies who charge far more money than a small business can afford. If you look at commercial property listings the price of rents and leases is incredible in a lot of places. I assume leaving gem empty means it can be offset against tax. It's the same way that many of the old businesses shutting down would be viable if they were independent businesses run to pay everyone's salaries and make a small profit but aren't profitable enough for the investors, so they strip them of assets and close them.

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Absentmined42@reddit

The town centre of the town I live in is always really busy and pretty much every shop is occupied. It’s not a high street, but a 1960s - 1980s pedestrianised shopping centre and it’s really popular. I’m in South Gloucestershire, not a posh place, just a family friendly, rural-ish town.

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SpecialistFarmer771@reddit

Going to be honest no clue at all where Reddit is getting this "muh high street is completely dead" from. I've been all over the country in the past 5 years and come from one of the most deprived towns in the nation and I've never seen what Redditors claim is happening. Always tons of people out for food/drink, going shopping etc, I've never seen anything close to an empty high street during regular hours and these places are usually crammed on the weekends. I can only think that Redditors say this sh\*t because they never go outside and just presume the rest of the world doesn't either.

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Suitable-Tough5877@reddit

Most places I choose to visit are pretty nice - fashionable cities with vibrant nightlife, prosperous middle class towns, twee villages or touristy places, but there are lots of run down poorer places. Our urban planning concept has been wrong for at least 50 years.

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pizzainmyshoe@reddit

Build housing. Crack down on any crime in town centres and make them a very nice place to live. You go to Germany and like 95% of the towns there are really nice. It's way lower here.

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luckyrubberducker@reddit

Legalise cannabis. In the Netherlands there are over 500 cannabis coffeeshops and in Canada over 3800. Get it off the streets and in to licenced vanues.

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ZestyBeer@reddit

Where it went wrong? Online shopping. Remember when buying something online would take maybe a week or two to arrive? Sounds like the Stone Age right? But it's true, it used to take that long, but nowadays we have such an insane feat of logistics that next day delivery on pretty much everything is the norm. Amazon's operation would make the Roman Empire weep with envy if they could see it. That service was driven by the sheer demand for fast online delivery. Brick and Mortar could never compete with it. To paraphrase Jimmy Carr: Whale Oil as Industry was essential to modern life, until it wasn't and died overnight. Horses? Essential to modern life, until they weren't and replaced with cars. Shops? Essential to modern life... I see lots of people, mostly older, complaining about how we've lost all the charming butchers, bakers, green grocers and potentially candlestick makers. But it's because 99% buys everything they need from supermarkets. All of the above is driven by convenience, one of the strongest drivers of human behaviour. So, fixing High Streets? Universally, I don't think it's possible. It's a slow decline, death by a thousand vape shops. There are certainly some places that will thrive, but the majority won't. They need to be focal points that get people together for events and experiences that couldn't exist online, but they're seldom profitable and quagmired in rent rises, noise complaints and end up shutting up long before they become a staple for that place. Sorry to be a doomer, but unless the government subsidises the inconvenience of yesteryears market street, people are only ever going to move towards ever more convenient solutions until we become the people from Wall-E.

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OldEcho@reddit

People need more money and the government needs to subsidize the hell out of public transport. We could (and should) lower or even remove taxes like the VAT which hits everybody and is thus basically a flat tax, and just actually tax megacorporations like Amazon. Or hell, we could even tax huge giant megacorporations *more* than mom and pop shops instead of less. We also should go back to how the tax rate was under Churchill and Eisenhower. There is absolutely no reason for one person to have a billion quid, it is an absurd amount of money. Let alone multiple billions. Also, there should be a property tax on properties past one family home and one business per person. It should not be lazily, easily profitable to just watch property prices skyrocket while refusing to rent except at sky high prices. There should also be trains and busses that are public owned and extremely cheap or free. Check the price to travel in China by high speed rail which is better than ours. The idea that public transport, basic public infrastructure, should be *profitable* is completely insane. When people can move about for free or cheap they *do*, and everyone is happier and the shops will be busy again. Online retail is not, in fact, more convenient. It takes at minimum a day to arrive. But Amazon doesn't pay its taxes so it is much *cheaper.* Honestly though pigs will fly before you see any of these reforms, and if you're going to fundamentally change society like this you may as well go all the way.

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chrizzleon@reddit

Uninvent the internet and raze the big convenient out of town shopping centres. Sadly I cant see any way that the old school High Street can compete with this.

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New_Slice_1580@reddit

Mortgages and rents are too high So people can’t afford to shop

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DrHydeous@reddit

If you want people to go to a high street you need businesses there that people want to go to and which charge prices people are willing to pay. It's that simple. My local high street is thriving. Lots of middle-aged people on the local Facebook group moan "why do we need another halal butcher" or "surely we don't need another chicken shop". They seem to want the sort of shops that used to be there but went out of business years ago because their customers - exactly the sort of people who are moaning - switched to shopping online. Anyway, the halal butchers and the chicken shops are busy, as are the greengrocers, and the cake shop, and the barbers. They're all offering services that don't work so well online. You can't buy a haircut online. You can't get a birthday cake with custom icing online - at least not and expect it to be correct and on time and not squashed. You can't buy just enough meat and veg for tonight's meal online.

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Rorasaurus_Prime@reddit

Online shopping and out-of-town shopping centres. Both are significantly easier to shop at. The high street isn't coming back, and nor should it. Build more homes instead and accept that a modern day high street will be a few convenience stores, a coffee stop and other places for locals to socialise.

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SomeHSomeE@reddit

- Free and widely available parking - Reliable buses - More focus on a mix of retail and things to do - good restaurants, cafes and pubs, activities like bowling, a cinema, library. Co-locate with GP, dentist, other local services (council offices etc). - Business rates discounts for small/local shops and businesses - Focus on retail that people like to do in-person: clothes, outdoor & sports, plus standards like boots, a small supermarket, etc. - limits/quotas on barbers, beauty salons - premium business rates charged to vape and mobile shops - kept clean and tidy and with nice visual features like green spaces. Well-lit.

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PigneySnoo@reddit

It's this. I've got plenty of time in the week to go and shop. There's a major city center about 20 minutes drive from my house. I'd probably grab a coffee etc whilst I'm there. But it's £5 to park for a couple of hours, and then I'll have to pay again if I want to return anything. Meanwhile there's an out of town retail park with plentiful free parking 10 minutes away, or I can buy on my phone and return for free. Guess where I spend my money?

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cactusdotpizza@reddit

We can't on the one hand shout about how valuable and important city/town centre space is and then also allow people to park their vehicle for free in an area roughly half the size of a small shop. You have to pick one.

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PigneySnoo@reddit

I mean, there's a middle ground of public transport? But when the trains run every 2 hours (15 minute journey) and the bus costs more than the parking....

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cactusdotpizza@reddit

"premium business rates charged to vape and mobile shops" Please tell me how you justify this. I'm not saying you're wrong but you can't really single these out in law.

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SomeHSomeE@reddit

They are a scourge on the high street. And of course you could single them out in legislation if parliament wanted to.

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cactusdotpizza@reddit

Again - how would you specifically target them? EE and Three and vodafone have shops that sell phones - how do you LEGALLY go after independent retailers without catching someone who also happens to sell the thing being regulated? It's not a stupid question. Its the type of question that councils have to ask and then answer in order to get something done

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RepublicWarm2383@reddit

I went to Swindon to look at a motorbike about 18 months ago. Walking through the town centre was like being in a post-apocalyptic war zone just with people in it. Gone were high-street names. Present were suitcase and tatt stores. Preachers shouting bollocks Gresham and Newport would be preferable! In fairness I think it was being "redeveloped" but it was a massive shit-hole everywhere I went

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scottgal2@reddit

Housing & shops where what they offer trumps the convenience of online. Stuff like salons, pubs. restaurants etc...Missing part is a robust public transport system where it's cheap and convenient to go out. Oddly Robotaxis might help here if they're super cheap virtually instant etc...Sadly for Taxi drivers, Uber drivers etc...

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tubbsy_al@reddit

With Swindon they built a large outlet centre next to the station with lots of parking, so all the chains that may have used the high street are there. Bristol has 2 main shopping areas, cribbs causeway which is out of town as well as Cabot’s in town. The fact is the larger & easy to get to shopping malls exist means the high street is doomed

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Airurando-jin@reddit

There are some high sfreet brands where they just have less overheads with doing online business and can reach a wider crowd. There has generally also been a push over the years in plant places just be large housing districts served by one to three large supermarkets or retail parks. There is also the cost for smaller shop owners of business rates, rent , utilities and the base or wholesale cost of their products along with transport. Out of area landlords have no interest in the towns development, rents can be increased beyond what is manageable and the shops need to be selling enough goods in order to meet business costs before they even consider paying themselves or others a wage.. which means you need to be selling or offering something which has regular throughout or have a business that can also benefit from selling online. We have growing socioeconomic deprivation, and have over the years, purse strings have often been tighter too. Online options may allow for cheaper products to be found online. Then you have effectively a world that is used to convenience and instant gratification. It’s not going to turn around

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New_Line4049@reddit

The "high street" as we once new it, with primarily retail outlets, is a relic of a by-gone age. Asking how to save it is like asking how we go back to wide spread use of the horse and cart to move goods around. We dont. Physical retail stores will always struggle to compete with online sellers. Buying online is just so much more convenient, no need to drive into town, fight for a parking space, walk to the shop, then do it all in reverse, just a couple of clicks and your stuff turns up at your doorstep. Ontop of that, online sellers can work much more efficiently by not having physical stores to pay rent on, maintain, etc. That means theyll generally always beat physical stores on price too. If you want to save the high street you have to give people a reason to go there, what can I get there that isnt cheaper or more convenient online? To my mind the obvious is the more social aspect. The high streets now need restraunts, cafes, live music venues, club spaces/other 3rd spaces. Have street performers, offer in person social experiences.

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AverageThat5267@reddit

Make Amazon pay corporation tax.

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quellflynn@reddit

The supermarket superpower is still destroying local shops. they do it cheaper, quicker and better. you can go get all the same stuff from lots of different shops and it'll all cost more and take longer. there needs to be some sort of limit. supermarkets are gonna compete with each other and have massive buying power, but you shouldn't be able to buy something like car oil, an emergency item, for cheaper than what places like euro car parts or Screwfix sell it for. high streets are full of all the shops that supermarkets won't / don't compete with... phone repair, vape shops, hair dressers, foreign stores, arcades etc. (although some stores sell some of these things) now Tesco is digressing into phones , insurance, credit cards, savings etc... they'll push into property I can see a Tesco's town, with the almighty blue sign lit up with thousands of houses directly around them.

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Teembeau@reddit

You can't. The internet beats nearly all of it. Knock down most of the shops, make the spaces housing and leisure.

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Cirias@reddit

More service based businesses with reasons to travel into the town centre. Lots of people say its easier to clothes shop online, but I never do because I can't be sure of the fit and especially for shoes as I'm size 12 wide fit and barely anything fits me properly, so I do all that kind of shopping in person. If it all went to online only I'd be up shit creek.

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Mozambleak@reddit

I totally get this. But the stance is always one that seems to suggest that there's some external culprit for this, like 'who did this to the high street?!' The answer is: everyone did. People want cheaper crap via Amazon. The high street of the past is a creature that couldn't adapt to a changing environment. And like those animals that can't adapt it has gone extinct. There is some survival and growth though -experiences. The things you can't buy online: meeting friends to eat or grab a coffee. Lots more restaurants and coffee shops. Im sure you will start to see other 'experience' based things pop up. Been seeing more VR gaming places for example.

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BillyJoeDubuluw@reddit

Free parking, pedestrianised streets and cafe culture do nothing if the shopping experience itself is frankly shit. There is a default of landlords leaving the units empty if the rents they command can’t be sourced and I think that needs to change… Units need to be let out at genuinely subsidised rates in order for small businesses and creatives to be given enough breathing space getting off the ground. If an area is given the chance to create a scene then the community flourishes, but more often than not there are far too many catch 22’s for small businesses and this leaves many of our high streets looking like something out of silent hill.

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nrsys@reddit

There will never be a return to the traditional bustling high street of the 1970's and 80's. It was killed off by convenience. It used to be busy because we had no choice - we needed to do our shopping somewhere, and that meant visiting the baker, the butcher, the greengrocer, etc. on a Saturday that maybe meant going shopping for some new clothes, buying a record or a book visiting the hobby shop for a model kit, supplies for knitting and the accoutrement of any other hobbies. First the supermarkets killed off the bakers, butchers, greengrocers and similar by assimilating the whole lot into one convenient building with a handy carpark and cheap prices. Then the internet killed off what remained with next day shipping and free returns that let you buy anything you wanted at the tap of a button and without leaving your seat. If you can order your art supplies or other hobbies bits online with a far greater selection than a local shop can support, and all your media is streamed directly to your TV or tablet, what is there left for the high street to sell? So we will never recreate the traditional high street, but we do need to find a way to revitalise it, ultimately by pivoting to the sort of services that you just can't get online - the cafes and restaurants, the small shops where service truly matters, and places that provide experiences over products...

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ArtichokeDesperate68@reddit

Admit that high streets like they ‘used to be’ aren’t viable.

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midlifecrisisAJM@reddit

Force Amazon to pay tax would be a start.

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fistmcbeefpunch@reddit

It needs to be an experience. Food and activities with some unique and bespoke shops. Online retail trumps all now

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SpecialistFarmer771@reddit

Where do you live where the high street doesn't have those things lmao? I've been all over this country and myself come from a poor as piss area and have never seen a "dead high street" lol. These places usually have tons of people on weekdays and get packed on weekends. Is this just you outing yourself as never going outside? I believe so because otherwise you wouldn't post something so ridiculous that's disproven by walking into ANY high street in the country lmao.

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welsh_dragon_roar@reddit

Make the high street somewhere people want to go and can sit and enjoy themselves without drunkards and weirdos shouting and causing a scene. If there's one thing that puts me off going anywhere it's the proliferation of loudmouths, cokeheads and pissheads ruining the vibe.

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Independent-Top-1201@reddit

Stop ordering from Amazon and deliveroo and go outside

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SpecialistFarmer771@reddit

It's funny that Redditors actually think the high street, shopping centres, clubbing, concerts, festivals etc are dead, it just shows to me that they get all of their worldview from Reddit which is inevitably full of other people just like them, which is how this myth goes around. I've travelled all over this country in recent years and have never seen anything close to a dead high street.

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Crivens999@reddit

Easy. Destroy the internet. As a CS grad from the 90s, I could well see this happening in the future. There was no way to turn that around apart from maybe some kind of decent government incentive, no matter what people said about high street “experiences”. Too late to put that genie back into the bottle. Think it’s been almost 20 years since we actually did our proper Xmas shopping in an actual shop (rather than just checking out the decorations and maybe getting some last minute decorations)

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SpecialistFarmer771@reddit

So what your saying is because YOU personally don't go to the high street for shopping, socializing, eating etc that it is dead for everyone else? I've been all over the country in recent years and I myself come from a deprived area and I have never seen what Redditors claim is happening. Most high streets are still rammed on weekends and have tons of people on weekdays, doing what you do on a high street, which is socializing, having food, shopping, just having a fun time.

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Crivens999@reddit

Not at all, and I come from like one of the worst places in the UK jobwise, but you take out the main reason to go to the high street and obviously that’s going to have an overall effect after a few decades

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Saltypeon@reddit

They are no longer needed as a regular part of every day life, do they decline or vanish. Convert more if to housing, we aren't going back to foot shopping anytime soon.

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waisonline99@reddit

Make car parks free. There, fixed it for you.

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mondeomantotherescue@reddit

Currently in Cartagena Spain. Not a big place. Okoys got sun... But they've got more of a chance of shops, bars and restaurants surviving. It's very walkable and it's dense. All the shops and bars have three or more floors or apartments above them. People live in the very centre. UK isn't great at that.

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planeloise@reddit

I don't know what they are doing in France, but I like it a lot. There are high streets but they are more dispersed. Shops of most areas in big cities look how we expect posher areas of London to look, as in more nice independent boutiques, independent book shops specialist shops (selling only hats, knitting items, umbrellas etc) , small intimate restaurants with a thoughtful menu, multiple bakeries and cheese shops in the same street plus the usual national chain stores Many shopkeepers selling random niche items told me they own the store itself, which is why they can stay open even when there are mo customers I won't go out of my way to Superdrug, but I would for nice yarn, pretty stationary, a changing menu and I'd give my kingdom for a book shop nearby.

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KoontFace@reddit

I think that the key thing is, is recognition of what town centres would be used for now, vs their original purpose. We have over relied on retail for town centre spaces, now, nobody visits town to shop, therefore nobody visits. They need to start mixing up the high street with bars, restaurants, cafes, galleries, museums etc Need to break up the concept of the town centre as a retail space and make it a hub for the local community, as you would see across European cities

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MermaidPigeon@reddit

Reduce the tax on shops. Someone I knew had a crystal shop and it did so well. Always someone in there. She shut down and I asked why, she said the rent on the shop was over a thousand pound a month. She also had to pay tax on every item bought and then tax for just having a shop..makes you wonder how the vape shops stay open when no one seems to be in there

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SpecialistFarmer771@reddit

Typical Redditor lmao. Vaping is huge particularly with Gen Z and you say no one is ever in these vape shops or barbers but thats just false lol, they're like mini corner stores and people go in all the time for vapes and soft drinks, which is pretty profitable, of course they get more demand, footfall and profit than a crystal shop.

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George_Salt@reddit

Actively convert retail to residential until the supply of retail balances the demand. Over supply of retail premises is killing town centres. You can see the difference in towns where there is a higher town centre residential population. It also needs to be a good mix of middle class standard residential accommodation. People that can afford to spend money on the street they're living next to.

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TeHNeutral@reddit

Just needs to be cheaper for a business to set up and not be full of dodgy barbers, American candy shops, betting shops, etc. Japanese zoning laws ruined my perception of what a good local high street was

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Available-Nose-5666@reddit

Maybe because a lot of people buy things online, and most shops close when people finish work, which doesn’t make sense whatsoever.

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badger906@reddit

So all delivery companies would need to turn nocturnal so they can deliver to stores at night. Then all logistic companies would too, and then all office staff who back these companies would need to open those hours. And then before you know it everyone’s working the same hours. Everyone seems to think retail stores just operate on their own time. No.. literally everything we do is governed by banks, delivery firms and logistics. you’d need to be staffed day and night to open in the evenings. And have a massively larger wage bill. Guarantee you, the number of increased custom would not cover that. I stopped opening my store late. Was always dead. Nobody wants to shop after work no matter how much they say they do. There’s a reason I do my weekly food shopping at 8-10pm.. stores are dead.

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gigglesmcsdinosaur@reddit

Having Stockton town centre as a nice place to meet up and be outside is a much better idea than the 2 half-empty shopping areas that were there before the Castlegate came down. Businesses moving into the empty units in Wellington Square next to the car park makes it look less desolate and Teesside Park had taken most of the retail customers away years ago. The new park area looks like it's going to be great when it opens in the summer. Time will tell how nice it stays!

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Suspicious_Steak_696@reddit

Town centres are often infested with cars, pollution, dangerous parking etc. I avoid taking my kids to those places for their own safety. Pave over the roads. Install play areas, entertainment, places people can sit and enjoy. Buying things you can get cheaper online will never work anymore. Make destinations for people and incidental trade will return.

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LoyalWatcher@reddit

Transport links that are cheaper than parking, or even better, free parking. Online will always be the biggest competition but there's still nothing to beat browsing, or actually being able to pick your product, or actually being able to take it home with you.

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MoffTanner@reddit

Retail parks are really busy. You know, the ones with the larger shops that have stock and where you can park for free.

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Majestic-Driver@reddit

I live in France, my French friends couldn't work out why the shops in the UK shut at 5pm (or even earlier) when everyone's still in the office. No wonder supermarkets do so well. In France high street shops tend to be open until 7pm or even 8pm.

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HMS--Thunderchild@reddit

Internet shopping isn't going away, so convert these places to mixed-use residences to fill the space. Also, open when I'm not at bloody work!

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badger906@reddit

But how would the logistics industry work then. If all shops open day 5pm till 11pm then all delivery combines would have to change hours. Then all the folks in offices who require deliveries will then need to change hours. Because no retail store is going to pay staff 9-5 to wait on deliveries, and then more staff 5-11 to sell them. That’s twice as much staff for the same money. Also Lidl is open till 10, I shop between 8 and 10 because it’s dead. Which means all the people who say shops should open after they work, aren’t shopping in them hours.

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PM_ME_VEG_PICS@reddit

This was a common issue / complaint where I used to live. People complained that the market was dying, traders said it was because no one came into town anymore, those of us working had to point out that most households don't have someone who is home every Monday during the day because we have to go to work. The market hours were something like 9am to noon so you couldn't even go before work or during lunch.

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FormatAndSee@reddit

Amazon and online shopping killed the high streets.

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TobyField33@reddit

15 years ago, my town was always bustling on a Saturday. Why? Because it had a big market and people would drive in from around the local area to browse. Afterwards, they'd filter through the town, buying food and drinks in the various pubs and cafes. The local council, in their infinite wisdom, decided to replace the marketplace with some absolutely crap piece of "modern art". Since then, the town has degraded massively. Hospitality venues have closed, buildings are literally decaying in real time etc. People need a reason to visit the high street. My town's example is a simple one, and it worked.

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kraftymiles@reddit

In Bristol we have a thriving high street. Possibly the longest in Europe?

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RianJohnsonIsAFool@reddit

I'm a local council candidate and one of things me and my co-candidates want to get stuck into, if we're elected, to try to improve our local high street is what curtilage laws exist or can be brought in to improve the appearance of shop fronts. We've got so many that have just been left to rot. European municipalities have local by-laws that mean shops and the road in front of them need to be properly maintained and kept tidy. Our local council has rules on the number of HMOs that can be made in an area but we don't appear to have anything like that for high street businesses to prevent an overabundance of nail shops, vape shops etc. We'd be interested in trying to solve that too.

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ClimoCustomGuitars@reddit

Rent control enforced by the government. Local businesses everywhere are already struggling to keep up with Amazon etc. then supermarkets got involved and now apparently at Asda I can buy everything from a couch, Caravan, and clothes and phones... But rent it's what's killing them. Landlords and mega wealthy owning entire towns of brick and mortar and bumping up the rents. The businesses shut down - to the point where now not even Gambling shops see it as cost effective. So what springs up in it's place? "Barbers" and "Nail Salons" which are all just money laundering with a very very small exceptional few.

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Chris-TT@reddit

Follow the Le Touquet-Paris-Plage model. Very cheap rent and reduced business rates, 80% has to be independents, lots of restaurants/cafés/bistros. Add in some leisure and I think it could work. High rent & business rates and thinking of them as a convenience doesn't work anymore, The chains and difficultly to park is why I avoid them. Almost every high street in the UK looks the same. I love them in a lot of mainland Europe, they are a destination rather than a convenience.

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Appropriate-Divide64@reddit

They need to be filled with what you can't get online. Cafes, restaurants, kids play places.... I'm a firm believer that if rents and business rates dropped to reasonable levels then more people will give a business a shot. I feel like councils should have some kind of incubator for this too. Have ways and spaces for potential business owners to dip their toes before expanding or failing without too much investment. There are hundreds of potential business owners who might give things a shot if we give them a hand

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Substantial-Bug-4998@reddit

Cancel amazon

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Stewstar73cyclism@reddit

Stockton urban park is just going to be hobo heaven.

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Reasonable-Key9235@reddit

Get rid of out of town shopping centres and malls. Free parking, loads of shops all under one roof. People go there rather than mess about in town. Once they started opening these centres, high streets started dying

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Dolbman@reddit

Free parking and reduced business rates to encourage more independent shops to enter the high street

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Srddrs@reddit

Repurpose the shop buildings as community-focussed centres. Places people can congregate and exist. Create third places that suit modern life.

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Striking_Smile6594@reddit

Any serious discussion about how to revitalise high streets has to acknowledge the fact that the high street as we knew it from 20 years ago is not going to come back. It's about finding a new purpose for a central areas based around communal experiences like eating and entertainment and less about shopping. Shopping will still have it's space, but it's going to be a much reduced space.

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AllOfficerNoGent@reddit

Ugh, sorry OP, this isn’t meant as a dig but the endless discussion of this is infuriating. Incomes. It’s all down stream of a decade and a half of stagnating living standards & disposable incomes. Capital reallocates where it exists. If it doesn’t you get zombie high streets full of zombie businesses.

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gggggenegenie@reddit (OP)

Sorry dude, I've not seen much of the discussion. I just came back last night from my day trip thoroughly depressed. Thanks for your reply.

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AllOfficerNoGent@reddit

You’re good brother

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PaulJMacD@reddit

It does come often but at least you framed your question positively, so don't think you should apologise.

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pebblesandweeds@reddit

How to ‘fix’? Priority would be to compel every local council to overhaul licensing and rates for a post-retail future. There has (this month I believe) been changes to level the playing field on business rates, but high streets will be the most expensive locations. Most will also be retail-focused, limiting the potential of other businesses to take over the space. Restaurants, cafes, bars all need a license, and many councils will limit these. Another big factor will be the landlords. Some literally don’t care about vacant properties and will leave them empty rather than reduce rents to attract businesses. Again, legislation could compel maximum timelines for such situations.

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BocaSeniorsWsM@reddit

Give shops the opportunity to charge the same amount for something as online. Maybe reduce the tax on some products if they are bought in a shop as opposed to online, to offset the additional rent, rates and employee costs they have to pay. Shopping in person for stuff is much better experience, especially clothes, shoes, perfumes etc

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chef_26@reddit

Free parking would be a start. I’m not driven into a town with a minor offering and paid parking when I can drive to Trafford Centre, park for free and go to any shop I can imagine. Does that make me part of the problem? Sure, but that’s not changing my approach. Changing parking rules would.

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Contrarian_Whitey@reddit

Offer products and services not widely available online for much lower cost.

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Neither_Process_7847@reddit

Or a better experience than doing things online - as with the resurgence in cinemas lately, with better seats and screens and additional activities meaning people enjoy it more than sitting in front of their own TV.

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Contrarian_Whitey@reddit

Cinema admissions across the UK in 2025 totaled 123.5 million, a 2% decrease on 2024 and a steep 30% lower than pre-Covid 2019 stats. The figures were released in Feb this year as part of the BFI’s annual statistics report.

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WhiteDiamondK@reddit

Simple. Reduce the business rates hidden in physical retail and push that taxation onto online shopping.

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fcGabiz@reddit

Retail, hospitality and leisure businesses should now be seeing cuts on business rates for the new tax year.

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smellyfeet25@reddit

Is it because people sit on their butts and want to do everything on line now?

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txe4@reddit

Controlled demolition. Some are unviable. Write them off, grant PP to convert to residential. Some are viable as destinations given safe affordable parking without rapacious enforcement and if anti-social behaviour is controlled. It is very difficult given rapidly inflating wage and energy costs and high rents and business rates, but possible for some places. The idea that people will travel and pay to park in order to pay more than Amazon costs for a worse range of goods is ridiculous, but entertainment plus luxury/boutique/craft retail can survive. Even quite backwards places can support it - but it has to be in a decent environment. You can't sustain it if half the units are empty and there are drug zombies walking around.

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Master_Sympathy_754@reddit

Some towns make it work, don't have ten of the same thing, don't have the big chains, dont just have takeaways and charity shops.

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claddingsliner@reddit

Hmmm large swathes of empty shops in a central location. No third spaces any more. Not sure what the solution is here? Some sort of center. For ... the community?

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LemmysCodPiece@reddit

I live in a small city centre. Thankfully, ours is still pretty prosperous. I tend to shop locally more.

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mattymattymatty96@reddit

Quite simply PAY THE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY SPEND MONEY IN THE ECONOMY MORE So much of our issues come down to this. Yes its more nuanced but simply its this.

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greenpowerman99@reddit

Local authorities could force owners of empty retail units to sell them or pay for conversion to residential units. Outline planning permission for change of use could be mandatory to accelerate action from owners.

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Winter_Parsley8706@reddit

I live in a town that is quite busy, lots of housing etc. Unfortunately shops seem to last about 6-12 months. There is loads of free parking, a train station, 2 big supermarkets all within walking distance yet the only shops that remain open are the nail salons, barbers and the convenience store. It's slowly transitioning to bars and charity shops now. Shame but the council have definiely tried

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Convair101@reddit

Fairly controversial opinion, but one I feel would work: create a denser city centre environment, and focus on building mixed use buildings (shop/residential mix). It ultimately comes down to convenience; the more people who live within distance of a city centre, the more people will use it. Solution is either to go all in on parking, build incredibly efficient local transport networks, or simply allow people to live in proximity to their needs. The larger option has been done to death, and the middle option isn’t going to happen. May as well try a third-way.

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ThatRandomBlondeGirl@reddit

Close most of the shops and use the space to create a community area, maybe a nice green park. With the few remaining shops, limit them to things like a butchers, florist, cafes, etc. Highstreets as we know them now are a waste of space, online shopping is too convenient. People need more community 3rd spaces... not another vape shop or Turkish barber.

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ucardiologist@reddit

Close Amazon and eBay That’s where the cancer is.

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GlumAd9856@reddit

I find it hard to understand why people are so desperate to 'save' the high street? How much time does the average person spend on them? Why not focus on your local area rather than going into the centre? People once needed to travel to a town centre as that was the only place they could buy the things they need. That is no longer the case. Time moves on.

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bourton-north@reddit

Lower rates, force landlords to lower rents if property empty

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Intrepidy@reddit

Construction of super high density housing with the appropriate green spaces would work. People would shop near by because its easy and doesn't feel like shit.

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greenpowerman99@reddit

An online sales tax would help to restore the competitiveness of bricks and mortar stores. It would also be a way of reducing the effectiveness of the tax avoidance practices of large online retailers like Amazon

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apple_kicks@reddit

Everytime i go to Europe even small towns you find more independent shops vs chains/empties shops. They must be doing something different possibly rent prices or small businesses get preference

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the_Athereon@reddit

It would help keep the shops open if the rents on High Streets were affordable.

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budgiebirdman@reddit

Things you can't do online. Cycle repair shops, tailors, eateries, indoor markets full of stalls for very small businesses.

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TieDyePandas@reddit

We can't, at least not the way everyone wants too, shopping and leisure habits have changed far too much to support a busy high street in every town. The local councils need to be looking for ways to reuse the land instead of letting them sit there and rot.

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bucket_of_frogs@reddit

The High Street isn’t as traditional as we’ve been led to believe. Prior to urbanisation and the rise of the middle classes in the 19th century, working class housewives bought groceries at the local market. The wealthy didn’t care where their supplies came from as they had everything delivered. Look at a typical high street full of fast food outlets and vape shops… https://preview.redd.it/macciydrwcug1.jpeg?width=1300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0540039649fd8c623af8b685f085f08ad1315bc2 All of those shop fronts were built over what were originally the front yards/gardens of residential homes, mostly early/mid Victorian homes. When the fad of stay at home housewives buying their daily groceries (no supermarkets or fridge freezers in those days) a short walk from their homes ended, we shopped weekly at out of town supermarkets with ample free parking. Amazon exists whether you like it or not. The “High Street” was relevant for around 120-150 years at most. Let it go. Hopefully soon those ugly shop fronts will come down and the “high street” will return to being the one-family residential homes they originally were.

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Aggravating-Day-2864@reddit

Shut down Amazon...

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RenderSlaver@reddit

It's too late, they're dead. Turn them in to green spaces a move on.

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GreenAmigo@reddit

Make them places to live above the store

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HardAtWorkISwear@reddit

The concept of a high street as we remember it will probably be lost in 100 years time - The advent of online shopping saw to that decline. I know it's a bit contentious because of misinformation, but the idea of a 5/15 minute city should, in theory, help revive a high street type of thing (Aside form the rubbish about confining people, obviously). Everything you need within walking distance? That's a high street right there. Locally owned shops, locally sourced goods, a community feeding the community. I fail to see why this has been fear mongered so much.

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Perception_4992@reddit

Turn off the internet.

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Qyro@reddit

Replace them with public parks. Bring back some green space and watch people actually use them again

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No-Taro-6953@reddit

More third space/community space focused. It can't compete against online shopping for convenience. But what is seriously lacking is third spaces. And in an age where people are stuck living with parents, or living in HMOs without a living room, a place to socialise or relax is needed more than ever.

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Redvat@reddit

High streets should be places where you don’t buy stuff to take home. They should be places where you can collect you online order, have a coffee, do an activity.

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Stimkey@reddit

Densify our cities/suburbs with more flats (not leasehold though, housing cooperatives), more flexibility for mix use and reduced commercial rates. Easier said than done I’m sure but if other towns/countries can do it so can we.

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helpnxt@reddit

Give up on shopping on the high streets and instead use them for experiences.

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klymers@reddit

Shops are not the future. Instead its experiences and activities - food and drink of course, but live music, table top games, escape rooms, all that cannot be replaced with the Internet (yet)

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CreativeAdeptness477@reddit

Accept that the traditional high street shops format is dead, let it die with what little dignity it yet retains, convert the buildings to much needed housing.

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JayR_97@reddit

Fix the opening hours so shops are actually open when most people aren't at work

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I_am_legend-ary@reddit

Stop trying to compete with the internet - more food and entertainment venues - make it a place to showcase local businesses, you do this by making rents free or extremely cheap for residents who run their own businesses or make their own goods

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perpetualmentalist@reddit

Crime rate and alcoholics... Not to mention the crackheads running from the stores. My town centre is a shit pit. Very rarely go, unless I need to go bank.

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Antique_Surprise_763@reddit

The crime rate is so so much lower then 20 years ago. The streets are much safe then in any point in most of our lifetimes

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Sea-Still5427@reddit

Maybe 40 years ago, but we had superstores and out of town shopping centres even then. The most political thing you do day to day is choose where you spend your money. Business rates and rents are big factors too, but your local high street reflects what people want to spend money on in person right now, and what business owners feel they can manage and still make a profit. That's why you can spend £4-5 on a cup of coffee - if people came to their senses and decided not to waste money on that, the big name coffee shops would disappear within a year, because they're there to make money, not to provide a service that fills a gap.

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suckingalemon@reddit

What are we saving them for?

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Antique_Surprise_763@reddit

They are nice to spend time in obviously? A lot of people enjoy shopping in person and then grabbing a coffee from a nice cafe. One of the Highstreets local to me is somehow in great condition and its charming, provides jobs and I enjoy it a lot. It might unfortunately be that me area that previously had 3 good highstreets 20 years ago, can now only support 1 as spending habits have changed but that 1 still has lots of value to many people.

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yubnubster@reddit

Probably part of the answer, mixed use with high density housing is probably a major one too. I think we have to accept though (which Stockton has), that in some cases at least, we're not keeping town centres as big as they were.

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TheDoctor66@reddit

So this isn't exactly my job but my job (a council) does touch on this and more so my wider team. I've contributed to improving the high street of a medium sized town. We've got a higher shop occupancy rate than the national average and increasing footfall year on year. The retail mix is for entrepreneurs really but to me it's about investing in them. This means cleaning graffiti, having flower planters, colourful bunting, one off events such as festivals and markets. We've invested in street marshals, CCTV, crime reporting systems. But I think most importantly is challenging negative beliefs. Celebrate what you have now, I'm sure Swindon has nice parks and independent shops. Talk up the town basically. So invest, don't wait for magic, celebrate what you have

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beseeingyou18@reddit

I think the real problem is multi-faceted. Now that shopping has moved online, the shops left on the high street are usually discount retailers. They're not going to invest money in customer service since their margins are so tight. As a result, the town centre becomes hollowed out and people don't enjoy going there anymore. The problem of empty town centres full of bargain shops begins to compound. So, as a council, what do you do? Well, you can try to incentivise high-end businesses to come back by offering business rate reductions. But the high-end businesses aren't stupid. They aren't going to lock themselves in to long contracts only to discover there isn't the footfall to sustain their business. Therefore, they only suggest one or two year terms at best, at the reduced rate on offer. That's not ideal for the council who are looking for revenue just like everyone else. Then a national, discount retailer comes in. They're happy with a five year contract, and they'll pay the usual rate because they know they've got the economies of scale to make the new shop profitable over that period of time. What can the council do? Accept a high-risk, low-value contract, or accept a guaranteed, higher-revenue contract over a longer period of time? They have a responsibility to get best value, and more money over a long period does offer better value in financial terms even if it offers lower value in qualitative terms. I am sympathetic to councils on this issue; it isn't an easy problem to fix.

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luke-uk@reddit

I’d personally like to seem them become social hubs, flats and places people hang out together.

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audigex@reddit

1. Overhaul the business tax system so that an online company with a warehouse isn't paying a fraction of the tax on the same sales as a company with comparable sales figures via physical stores 2. Make it so the big interenational online companies subsidise the small local cafes etc 3. Make parking free. Make public transport cheaper Some types of stores (shoes, homeware) probably can't survive on the high street, but the high streets themselves can evolve if we try to minimise the amount of extra cost the businesses incur and extra hassle of operating there

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UnexpectedRanting@reddit

Parking is the only thing that annoys me. Have to a fiver to park? Meh. I get why but I can just go to my local outlet/shopping centre and park for free

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jaBroniest@reddit

There isn't a way, the world is evolving passed it. Some aspects may remain but most retailers sell items above online RRP. The last time i used a high street store was to check the sizing of the same item I was buying online. Went in, tried on the jacket (£249.99) bought it online for £199.87. I work hard for my money man.

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maersyl@reddit

My wife works in a rather higher end fashion brand's shop. They get 50% off... online only. You'd think they'd want the staff to spend money in the actual store. She tries all the stuff on whilst at work, comes home, orders online TO THE STORE at 50% off. Then the managers higher up in the brand are complaining people aren't buying in the shop and staff aren't buying in the shop, but they won't extend the discount to the actual physical shops! My mind just can't figure out the logic.

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Bibblejw@reddit

The short and economic answer is that it needs to be cheaper and easier to use the high street than it is to use out-of-town facilities. What that means is either making it cheaper for people to operate in town (tax cuts, benefits, etc.), and making it more difficult for the larger operations out of town (tax hikes, etc.), while simultaneously making it convenient to use in-town facilities (free parking, better pedestrian capabilities, etc.) and prevent the traffic that makes getting in to town difficult (better roads, better flows). Now, it's easy to blame the big supermarkets on this, and there are elements of this being the problem (particularly their influence on politics), but making it easier to get in to town at the same time as making it easier to work in town are almost mutually exclusive. It could be done, but it's very expensive, and a massive economic and beauraucratic outlay for something that basically amounts to "vibes". You can't expect customers to prioritise town locations when there's price constraints and the current economic climate. How much would you be willing to pay to fix this problem? What's the actual benefit that you're wanting from it?

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rb7833@reddit

We shouldn’t- we should work to converting 50% of them to residential use, preserving the historic buildings (if any!)

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DamnitGravity@reddit

I'm from Australia and I gotta say, the cafe culture here in my Greater London suburb SUCKS. It's all chains with shitty coffee. Aside from food/drink related places, everything else is so much cheaper online. Stores have to charge high prices because rent, utilities and business costs are SO high, especially now. When you can get it all online for 1/3 the cost, direct to your door, going out doesn't really make sense. Specialty shops are great, but unless it fits the local culture and has a lot of business, there's no point having them. I like the high streets I see here, especially in places like Cornwall, Yorkshire, the Cotswolds, and Kent. A lot of them are really cute, people put in the effort and there are some really great shops out there. Probably because it's cheaper outside of cities like London, Birmingham, Manchester, etc, and they have a better community. I guess it also depends on the reputation of the area. I had to google Swindon, as I've heard of it but didn't really know where it is. I'm guessing it's not a 'tourist hot spot'. You need a series like Poldark, or a famous band like the Beatles or Black Sabbath to originate there so they can get those sweet sweet tourist bucks.

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Environmental_Peak43@reddit

Perhaps we should shop more in shops than online. I don't a mix. Books i normally buy off hive co. UK as they support local high street book shops. It's about the same price. I buy a mix of real shops and online for other things. I only use Amazon if I have to. They aren't the best employer . I would rather the retailer pays their share of tax too. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Small things I think can help.

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thehappyonionpeel@reddit

Car parking and charges put us off Busses for one is ok, for multiple naa Then for the shops, I'm guessing there's the rent for the building I would like more markets and unique places to draw me in And very much at the end of the list of nails to high street it's the superior convenience offered by online goods shopping

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ComprehensiveAd8815@reddit

The shops ain’t coming back as they were as shopping habits has fundamentally changed but to create the ground where they could… We need to put housing back into town centres, all types of housing for all budgets, make it worth it, where there are people things thrive. Most town centres are devoid of life, empty flats above shops, decaying malls and centres, strip back, reimagine, rezone, rebuild. People are key. People living 4 miles away on a gated estate will not go to town centres.

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Straightener78@reddit

People don’t want to go to the high street anymore. Businesses Need to find ways to people back.

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Comfortable-Knee3972@reddit

Cannabis shops

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MaxMouseOCX@reddit

~~Video~~ e-commerce killed the ~~radio star~~ high street...

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No-Photograph3463@reddit

Yes we can, but it will involve councils reducing their income. First of all buisness rates have to be 0 for all businesses on highstreets, so at the very least normal shops are then on a level playing field with charity shops which are the scourge of a high Street as there are so many. Then parking charges have to be massively reduced, as thats putting people off visiting when you can just go to a massive retail or shopping centre and park for free instead. Then shop have to accept that we aren't in the 60s anymore so all adults in a household work in the week so having a shop open 9-5 Monday to Friday is pointless. Instead open shops 9-5 for a day or two, but then have some 12-8pm opening hours. This will need some collaboration as really all the shops need to do the same to have a decent effect. Then in some larger shops if possible should be turned into street food vendors or similar, so again small food vendors with lots of variety will be in one place. This also works with shops opening later as then people can get some food at the same time.

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IJBLondon@reddit

Going High St shopping was always (at least from the 90s onwards) a depressing unpleasant experience with the same string of boring chain shops in every town. No wonder people prefer online shopping. The way to go is develop unique things in towns: interesting independent shops and cafes + experiences that actually make you want to go there. Places like The Lanes in Brighton. Otherwise why would you go?

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Kopparberg643@reddit

Do what Watford High Street does. Large food market, lots of restaurants and quick eats. Activities to do. That gets people in, so they also shop. Unfortunately night time High Street died, but at least they changed it around.

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veryordinarybloke@reddit

Amazon received government tax breaks (under the Tories) and pays almost no tax. In return we get unpleasant warehouse jobs, boarded up shops, fleets of vans rushing around, piles of dodgy junk cluttering our lives, and excellent businesses forced under, while vast profits disappear overseas. How does any of this benefit the UK?

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mronion82@reddit

My town has been described as 'Britain's best kept seaside secret' or similar a number of times, and now we have lots of people who have retired here from London to run bespoke ironing board cover shops that are open twice a week for three hours. That doesn't work.

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DrMacAndDog@reddit

20 years??! The rot set in in the 80s.

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Lopsided_Snower@reddit

I was about to question this but you're of course absolutely correct, it was even earlier really when I think about the old map of our village I saw recently, which documents how many shops and businesses were on the high street in the late 50s - there were three chippers, there're now none, for example

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gggggenegenie@reddit (OP)

I know it did. My point being that, even 20 years ago, you could go to the High Street and get what you need.

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mcmanus2099@reddit

Convert to residential areas or public spaces. Promote a community there. Shops aren't coming back to the high street, no one wants to pay the prices required for them to be viable, let's not subsidise something obsolete that doesn't work because of trying to hold on to what was. Instead let's look at all this joined up, pedestrianised real estate and think of what we could transform it into. What do we want at the heart of our community? Convert some old large stores into homeless shelters? Create more green spaces and park? Convert to housing and create residential communities with shared pedestrian areas outside. I am sure we can think of something that will bring benefits from this space, but let's stop trying to make shops still work there.

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coffeewalnut08@reddit

Check if your area has a Pride in Place programme [here](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/what-is-pride-in-place). If they're running online consultations, drop-in sessions, or neighbourhood boards, consider getting involved. Look on your council website or ask your MP. You can flag high street decline as one of the main issues facing your area that you want fixed. Links: [Pride in Place | Middlesbrough Council](https://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/about-middlesbrough/improving-middlesbrough/pride-in-place/) [Pride in Place Survey - Andy McDonald MP](https://www.andymcdonaldmp.org/pride-in-place-survey/) (East Middlesbrough) Also, just keep shopping at the high street. "Use it or lose it", as they say.

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SilverellaUK@reddit

Here in S Yorkshire, Meadowhall has a lot to answer for.

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zamoflo@reddit

I think leaning towards having things to do rather than things to buy is the best option (in my opinion!) - I live in Wigan and the town centre is dire (one of the shopping centres is has been knocked down and will replaced with a food hall with cinema/bowling and other bits which the locals love to complain about), but they’ve revamped some of the old mill buildings just outside the centre into an outdoor food hall with bars, live music, a monthly makers market and loads of family events and it’s almost always busy! I’m not huge on the “blokes singing 90s covers on an acoustic guitar” vibe but it seems popular with a lot of people 😂 Another building now has a bar and offices and will be getting more stuff in it over the next few months as well. Personally, I’d rather go out to see people or do something fun than idle around the same old chain shops 🤷🏻‍♀️

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ComprehensiveFee8404@reddit

Parking needs to be plentiful, accessible and free. That's the number one blocker imo. If you have to pay to park, or there are never any spaces, or they're all miles away, you'll never go. I live near Rustington, whose high street is always bustling because there is free parking both sides and at Waitrose.

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Lopsided_Snower@reddit

lets turn the internet off, life was much better without it

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glasgowgeg@reddit

High streets can't be "fixed", they need to choose to offer a better service than can be found elsewhere.

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clbbcrg@reddit

Free parking would go a long way.. councils need to not charge rent for a few years for new businesss to get a foot in without worry of 120% of what they earn going right out the door.. shops are empty otherwise so council not losing anything .. it’s nearly impossible to open a little chocolate or flower shop for example due to th crazy rates .. the high streets could be full of artisan stuff you can’t just click to buy online but councils would sooner see a wasteland of boarded up windows

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kayzgguod@reddit

20 years is a long time, get over it

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Nebulousdbc@reddit

Reddit's most intelligent reply

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Chimpy20@reddit

Where I live - Leamington Spa - is rammed at weekends with people going to coffee shops, restaurants and bars, plus it has events in the town parks most weekends in the spring & summer which draw crowds. I think it's about diversifying and not relying on retail, and being a place to meet friends and see interesting things.

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ldn6@reddit

Allow more residential density on and next to them.

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Esqulax@reddit

Rents, rates, licences and taxes. It costs a lot to simply be there. Many people buy stuff online now, so the brick & mortar costs are avoided, plus it can be run by way fewer members of staff. You'll notice that a lot more babers and stuff open up in these places. Yeah, I know there are theories around them being fronts for something else (not getting into that here), but as a business - You need to actually be there to use the business. Hard to get a haircut over zoom! With vape shops, its a bit different - the customers would want the stuff there and then, instead of ordering online and waiting a couple of days. As supermarkets sell everything, its much easier for people to head to one place to get it all than to head to the butchers, grocers, cheesemonger (I wish that was still a common thing), and the fact that most 2 person households need both people to work to maintain it - They're not around during the day to actually shop. I don't think there is a fix, unfortunately. It's the natural progression of places like this when the average consumer simply can't go there because of work, and a very high percentage of things to buy can either be gotten at a supermarket or ordered online to be delivered the next day.

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FellMo0nster@reddit

Feels like a mix of online shopping killing foot traffic and crazy rents pushing small businesses out. Honestly the places that seem to bounce back lean into experiences (markets, food halls, events, parks) instead of trying to force the old retail model again.

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fortyfivepointseven@reddit

We can get rents down with more retail units. The key to reduced rents are vacancies - shop owners need to be able to credibly say, 'I can move shop', to their landlords in order to get rents down. We need to accept a few boarded up or whitewashed units in order to see a truly thriving retail environment. The other aspect is that shops need to be competitive with online retail for convenience. That means having way more mixed use shops, shops mixed in with housing so that people can just pop to the shops for a convenient item. Less reliance on the high street model, or at least, smaller high streets dotted around the place.

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RevFernie@reddit

Working from home and remote work. Combined with Amazon. Probably killed the high streets off. Combined with economic uncertainty and ongoing crisises.

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Ok_Bumblebee_2196@reddit

With working from home I'm actually more able to use my local high street in an obscure regional town. Would be better if the opening hours could extend into the evening so that people with 9-5s could use the local shops.

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Neither_Process_7847@reddit

Exactly. Good shops near where people actually live, open when people are around, will thrive and are doing. Cheap poor ones that relied on office workers being their on lunch, in centres nowhere near whee those people are now working most of their time, will not.

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BeaumarchaisApu@reddit

Our local high street has multiple cafes that are absolutely thriving as there are more people in the area now on a weekday that before would’ve been commuting to ‘the big city’ for work every day.

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jend000@reddit

Make them into third space type places, youth clubs, sports clubs, games workshop kinda gaffs

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Darkus185@reddit

In Somerset I order exclusively on Amazon unless I absolutely have to go into town. In the Netherlands I cycle in breezily on clean, immaculate cycle paths, lock my bike up and it’s always there when I get back. I stroll around independent shops, real novelties, and of course there are the reliable chain stores like Hema and stuff. I never get hassled. If I need the train it costs about 25 euros to go quite a long distance. I sometimes change up and visit a random town I’ve never been to before just because it’s easy and always works.

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linkheroz@reddit

The high street never has what you need. The number of options now is so high, they can't stock everything. It's easier to order it online and have it come to you.

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my-comp-tips@reddit

Large supermarkets took a lot of footfall away from the Butchers, Bakers, Greengrocers and other small business. Then the internet came along and finished it off. I wouldnt want to start a business on the high Street these days, and I congratulate anyone who is able to make it work.

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TheAviator27@reddit

Reduce rents and rates, block online shops, and free public transport.

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Which-World-6533@reddit

We need to stop Town Councils and their war on the High Street. When I was growing up, there were several towns local to me that were bustling. The Town Councils decided to pedestrianise the High Street and make it impossible to use vehicles. Then they increased prices on the car parks that were walking distance. There were some busses but as trade declined these were scaled back and stopped way before the shops closed. Finally the weekly market was moved to a car park and cut down further on available parking to ensure no-one could visit the town easily. Everyone went to the out-of-town shopping centres that had free parking and good transport links, including buses.

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CheekyHusky@reddit

This is exactly the real problem. My Amazon prime subscription for a month of shopping from the comfort of my home, is the same price as 2 hours of car parking in my town.

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Which-World-6533@reddit

Well the high streets were pedestrianised in the early 90's.and the effect was fairly obvious by the late-90's and early 000's. It's when everyone moved to the out-of-town shopping centres as it was so much easier.

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DatGuy82772@reddit

Stop buying off of amazon and stop going to out of town shopping centres.

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CalmdownpleaseII@reddit

Easy to say. I have really tried to buy from physical stores but the experience is truly shit in many instances. Go to Currys and try to buy something and tell me if that was a good experience.

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Any-Reading-8009@reddit

Sad to say but you just need the area to have people with money. If no one has money then no one will go spend it, go to any affluent town and the high street isn't dead, they are full of people spending money on restaurants, cafe, shopping, pubs, local independants etc etc

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EyeAware3519@reddit

Why would you want to? High streets in the UK were just copy and paste shrines to capitalism filled with chain shops. Parking was expensive (most towns have terrible public transport), chuggers lined the streets as did groups of chavs and the constant noise of terrible buskers filled the air. I don't think I ever enjoyed a trip to the high street in the 1990s, rose tinted glasses seem to be very popular these days.

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Conscious-Ball8373@reddit

Stop spending money on them in useless regeneration schemes. Use the money to reduce business rates instead.

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Tiny_Major_7514@reddit

Tax billionaires.

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Brave_Trifle_2493@reddit

I think if people were richer in money and in time then it would help. Most people would prefer to support local businesses but it costs less time to order stuff off the internet and often less money. I don’t know about you but I sometimes avoid shops as I know I’ll spend more money than I have budgeted. I think that councils really need to support local businesses to create experiences that draw people into the towns - with a byproduct of increased footfall being more money spent in local shops. I also think towns need to be kept clean and tidy and that parking should be free/affordable if you get a token to say you’ve spent money in a shop

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Avionykx@reddit

People need money to spend, they need to be able to get into the towns and they need to be able to spend their money there. Once you've got the money to spend there needs to be enough shops to make it worthwhile and it needs to be possible to get there. Where I live there aren't actually any busses that go into my local town that get there in under an hour and 15 mins - it's 15 mins in the car. I'd go in the car more but there's never anywhere to park and the charges are extortionate even when you find somewhere. More parking spaces, cheaper parking and make it possible and desirable for people to wander round their towns. I love going in to the town and visiting the greengrocers, but there's little else to do and the money saved by getting things at the greengrocer and shopping locally is soon taken up by the parking charges and inconvenience of it all.

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Ruscombe@reddit

I think you're living in the past if you think that high streets in towns and cities will ever be like they were 20-30 years ago. For many people online shopping is all they do and they have no desire to visit bricks and mortar high streets. So for many places, it's charity shops, vape shops, nail bars, barbers, fast food outlets etc. There are exceptions but they will be in wealthier areas.

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tea_would_be_lovely@reddit

buy stuff in high street shops, cafes, etc. stop going to out of town supermarkets and shopping online. might be a start?

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DandyLionsInSiberia@reddit

For starters, online retail giants should be taxed in proportion to the space they now dominate in our shopping habits, rather than enjoying a free ride while bricks-and-mortar shops quietly disappear. Those funds could, and should, be reinvested into breathing life back into our town centres, reshaping them into vibrant spaces where shopping sits alongside leisure, dining and culture, not in competition with them. Safety matters too. No one wants to browse or socialise in an area that feels neglected or intimidating, so proper, visible policing is essential to curb the creeping tide of antisocial behaviour that puts people off returning. And then there’s the next generation. If we’re serious about long-term change, we need to give young people somewhere to go and something to do. Youth clubs and recreational spaces aren’t luxuries, they are preventative measures, offering direction and purpose before boredom turns into trouble. As for those depressing rows of empty units, why not rethink them entirely? Hand them over to communities, artists and local groups, turn them into local art initiative schemes or cultural hubs rather than boarded-up reminders of decline. High streets don’t have to fade away. They just need to evolve, and be given half a chance they will..

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Awesomepwnag@reddit

Stop buying things on Amazon p

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Ok_Light_7227@reddit

We should look at what the towns and cities that are still successful are doing. It's not happening everywhere.

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El-Terrible777@reddit

Taxes on hospitality aren’t helping. Government needs to have a serious look. The better restaurants and cafes do, the more people “pop out” and then browse shops and are more likely to buy.

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Ok-Measurement-1575@reddit

I hate to say it because I abhor it but unwinding the smoking ban would probably help. Then again, I absolutely do not want to sit around in smoke. I think the high street is fucked, end of.

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cragglerock93@reddit

Housing, housing, housing. There is too much commercial space on High Streets for today's world where Amazon and retail parks exist, and what is there is often poor in quality and not what retailers want. Trying to fill all the commercial space is a fools errand unless some of the out of town commercial space is demolished, or if financial incentives are given to businesses, neither of which sounds great. Housing has the dual benefit of using up unused spsce, which in turn protects historic buildings, and also provides hundreds of people in the area who can and will spend locally to some extent, supporting the remaining businesses. The streets feel more alive and better kept, and that attracts more people from the suburbs to eat and shop there.

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ZydrateAnatomic@reddit

The problem you see is not with all high streets. The problem is with Swindon.

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NajafBound@reddit

Disagree. You’d find many high streets like this in the UK.

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gggggenegenie@reddit (OP)

Disagree. It was top painfully similar to Boro, which is in a terrible state. Stockton, not much better. I could go on.

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NajafBound@reddit

Too much rent money. The UK has extremely high and ridiculous energy costs too.

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HellPigeon1912@reddit

Tax on online sales. High streets are gone because internet shopping is cheaper and more convenient. It would be enormously unpopular and most of the electorate would rather leave the high street to rot

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Ok-Blackberry-3534@reddit

Well...yeah. People want lower prices.

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HellPigeon1912@reddit

Pandora's box is open, you can have cheap online sales or a thriving high street but not both

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BeaumarchaisApu@reddit

You can have both. The high street just needs to adapt away from things that have lost to online sales.

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greenfence12@reddit

Reduce / scrap parking charges and tax online retailers more so they're forced to raise their prices to be in line with high strees. People moan about their high streets declining but continue to order lots online, use out of town retail parks and use town centres infrequently due to the higher prices and inconvenience of getting there, needs a mass change of attitudes to save the high streets

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EUskeptik@reddit

Out of town shopping centres with free parking delivered a massive blow. Then online shopping killed off most high streets. Double whammy. 😢 -oo-

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Odd_Research_2449@reddit

Put more money in people's pockets by tackling the costs of living and taxing corporate profits and the very wealthy.

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nintendofan2_0@reddit

In my opinion, it’s cheaper, easier and more practical to buy online now. There’s way more online discounts and the fact you don’t have to criss cross across the whole shop trying to have a look around makes it easier to just shop online. I’d say to improve the town centre again, shops really should open for at least another hour or two. I used to go to a high school in the city, and even then i’d only have an hour MAX to look around town after school before they shut. If shops shut at 7 / 8pm more regularly, I bet this would increase people going to town. One last point is I hate how most towns now are just bookies, vape shops and / or expensive boutique shops that charge £150 for a jumper…

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towerridge@reddit

Commercial vacancy tax. 3 months business rates relief after a tenant leaves, then rates double every month after that until filled. Lowers rent and allows otherwise unprofitable businesses to stand a chance.

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Hampshire-UK@reddit

Too many shop units and not enough homes. Do the maths. Easy.

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Cute-Bar-5152@reddit

High streets didn’t die they were slowly strangled. Sky-high rents, online giants, no reason to linger. Want them back? Make them *experiences*, not just shops: housing, events, food, culture, green space. Give people a reason to stay, not just pass through.

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