Responding to a Crisis on the High Street: ATCM South East

The retail causalities for 2018 continue to grow. High streets across the UK face an incredibly challenging climate.

So severe has been the contraction of retail that even some of the best known retail brands have not been immune from store closures and disruption including Debenhams, M&S and House of Fraser. Neither has the disruption been limited to just high street retail. More recently, even well known restaurant chains having admitted to being under pressure as too are other footfall generators like Post Offices and banks.

The next meeting of ATCM South East will explore the challenges in town centres across the nation and how town centre managers and BIDs are responding in terms of short-term fixes like dealing with vacant property and longer-term solutions such as supporting local business start-ups, inward investment or town centre diversification.

We will also look at UK-wide developments that have emerged as a result of these challenges such as the High Street 2030 Select Committee in Westminster.

There will also be an update on ATCM’s work to support positive change through new strategic alliances and a new focus on high street reinvention.