Reshaping towns for young people

Research from the Centre for Towns has shown that Britain's towns are getting older at a faster rate than at any time in recent history and this is because young people are leaving for cities where their needs and aspirations can be met.

The most visible manifestation of where this disconnect is occurring is on high streets; traditionally the beating heart of communities. Britain's high street decline is well documented and in a bid to tackle the problems associated with empty shops, shrinking retail and loss of identity, the government launched a £675m Future High Street Fund late last year. Providing up to £25m for each area to support plans to make town centres fit for the future, it has the potential to kickstart a nationwide programme to reimagine high streets.

Bringing young people back to high streets
UK and international examples

• Salisbury
  Footfall has fallen by 11 per cent since the Novichok nerve agent attack last year and council chiefs are looking to attract more young people into Salisbury as part of a strategy to bring vitality back to the high street. They have already held a Teenage Market and are looking at redesigning the gateway to the city with murals and lighting displays on buildings.
• Wigan
  Like many other towns, Wigan is suffering a brain drain of younger people to larger centres. As part of its Future High Streets Funding application, it is seeking to build an "eco-system to keep young people and families in Wigan". They have already engaged 500 young people in "Big Listening" events in Wigan.
• Tel Aviv
  A Tetris-inspired game was projected onto government buildings to build a more playful, vibrant community. Two huge joysticks were installed in the square in front of the scheme, encouraging young people to play against each other.
• Los Angeles
  With the help of a grant from the Mayor's Great Streets programme, community groups designed a crossroads to look like keyboards and recruited DJs to play on each of the corners. They also mounted iPads loaded with custom samples on each lamppost and ran a beats making contest.

Priority group

If the holy grail for high streets is to restore a sense of dynamism, become a testbed for innovation and rediscover a sense of purpose, then young people should be a priority group for policymakers. With a 2017 study by the National Citizen Service showing that more than a quarter of British people aged 16-17 felt no sense of belonging, the high street can be a powerful frontline for building citizenship and social capital.

In Warrington we are focusing heavily on making our high streets a better environment for young people. We have invested £6.5m into Warrington Youth Zone and if our Future High Street Fund bid is successful, we will develop a new social contract with young people that commits to a big change in what the high street offers them.

We plan to build genuinely affordable housing in the town centre, letting young people get on the housing ladder and lay down roots. We also want to offer free rehearsal space for musicians and dramatists along with more co-working space, an enterprise hub and tech incubator.

Digital deserts

Not only are too many towns "digital deserts" with poor connectivity and wi-fi blackspots, but there is also a lack of collaborative infrastructure that allows young people to work together, experiment and share ideas. Creating this environment will help us support innovation, nurture a developing "sharing economy" and meet wider needs.

We are also looking to involve young people in the design of urban spaces by using participatory planning to give them a strong stake in their town and shape what needs to change.

Community hub approach

These are starting points for a challenge that local government can no longer ignore, as high streets move from a traditional retail model to a 21st century community hub approach where the future is less about purchases and more about experiences.

The challenge for local authority decision makers is to reconnect with a demographic that no longer finds their high streets inspiring. To do this they need solutions around digital connectedness, access to key services and widening the experience economy (see above).

Creating a networked high street is vital and at the very least town centres should have an app that acts as a digital navigation tool to offers, community events and new experiences. Once the right digital infrastructure is in place you can transform how young people experience and interact with their high streets.

Similarly, with more young people using libraries than ever before, there is an opportunity to widen provision. Do you have a "makerspace", a Teen Zone or a coding club, for example? Studies also show that "Generation Zs" value experiences over material goods, so the future makeup of high streets should be looking to include a greater leisure and culture offer.

With studies showing Gen Zs are arguably the most entrepreneurial and digitally savvy generation in history, councils could do worse than start giving younger people a bigger say in shaping the future of their towns.