The death of the high street is a myth and retail has a key role to play in the regeneration of failing town and city centres, a new report has claimed. Making Sense of Mixed-Use Town Centres, produced by national planning and development consultancy Turley, outlines a new framework for regenerating urban centres across the UK.

According to the report, fears over the future of high street retail have been exaggerated and it has an important role
to play in the future. The report highlights that in 2017 £178bn of in-store non-food transactions were completed – an average of £488m a day. This is significantly more than the value of online sales for non-food retail, which totalled £45bn at an average of £123m a day.

Figures for in-store spending are projected to increase to £227bn by 2026 – showing that retail still has a valuable role to play in the high street of the future. The report goes on to highlight the 8m sqm of vacant space in town and city centres across the country. It says that through a mixed-use development strategy, a third of this space could be used to deliver more than 45,000 homes, helping to address the housing crisis.

This is a conservative estimate based on the assumption that new residential developments do not exceed the height of existing buildings. Many more homes could be delivered if taller buildings are considered, the report says.

Speaking about the report’s findings, Richard Laming, senior director and head of economics at Turley, said: “Securing the future of our town centres is a critical national issue – and one that is rightly getting a lot of attention. These centres are vital to residents, communities and businesses alike and are engines of economic growth. It is vital that these areas are allowed to evolve and that the planning system is (able) to support this.