A new commission is set to be launched next month in a bid to revive struggling high streets across the North East.
Council leaders and mayor Kim McGuinness are poised to pledge an initial £850,000 to set up a board tasked with breathing fresh life into town centres plagued by empty shops, anti-social behaviour, and underinvestment. North East Combined Authority (NECA) chiefs say that the hope is to deliver long-term change that goes beyond immediate upgrades to individual streets, exploring how new housing, more reliable public transport links, and other “catalysts for regeneration” can be delivered to help make up for the decline suffered as shoppers have increasingly turned to online retailers.
It is not yet known which parts of the region will be targeted, with the commission and local councils across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and Durham due to come up with a set of priority locations once the commission is established in February. The commission is expected to be led by the mayor alongside a “high-profile expert co-chair”, who is yet to be named, and will seek to leverage in further investment from the private sector.
Ms McGuinness said: “High streets are a crucial part of day-to-day life for people across the North East, not just for shopping, but as a place for people to come together, to work, enjoy our area’s rich culture or use public services. “While we have many beautiful, vibrant town centres across the region, the challenges facing many high streets are well-documented.
“I promised in my manifesto to set up a High Streets Commission and today we are delivering on that. I’m determined we work together with local people to reverse that decline and restore pride in our places.
We want to explore the art of the possible, reimagine what our villages and towns look like, and give communities the opportunity to shape their area’s future. That’s what real evolution looks like, so together, we can revitalise the North East and create more opportunity for local people.”
A report being presented to the NECA cabinet next Tuesday states that footfall on UK high streets had been in decline for more than a decade even before the Covid pandemic hit and that roughly 40% of retail floorspace nationwide is now deemed “surplus to requirements” – with about one in seven high street shops sitting empty. It adds that towns and villages in areas of the highest deprivation, like many in the North East, have suffered worst and that four in every five retailers expect to make more store closures in future.
North and South Shields, Horden, Blyth and Gateshead are all referenced in the report as areas of “need and opportunity” which already have regeneration strategies. NECA says that Government initiatives like the ‘Town Deals’ and ‘Long Term Plan for Towns’ launched under the Tories had been “relatively small scale” and too reliant on public funding, meaning they “have not provided for the scale of innovation needed to reimagine our high streets and develop more sustainable models”.
At its meeting in South Shields next week, the cabinet will be asked to formally agree to the creation of the commission and invest £850,000 to help develop its initial priorities and put together a programme of interventions.
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