Settle market

ENGLAND’S 1,600 market towns have been hard hit by the recession, with unemployment overall rising by a third more than in the nation as a whole, according to new research.

Feeding into a report to Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the research is from the government’s rural watchdog, the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC).

The report contains research into market towns across England involving Action for Market Towns, the Centre for Local Economic Strategies and the Rural Evidence Research Unit at Birkbeck, University of London.

The research also showed that the number of vacant shop units has increased over the last six months, while around 60% of existing vacant retail premises have remained empty during that time. This damages both the look and economic vitality of town centres.

Although there are examples of local town partnerships and councils taking action to address these issues, changes in funding priorities mean that there is less money for local projects and the number of town centre managers is decreasing.

Almost 11 million people live in England’s market towns and larger villages – over 20% of the total population. The research shows that amongst the hardest hit are middle class and professional groups with greater links to urban economies, towns with high levels of young families and those working in the administrative sector in middle England.

The CRC’s report makes a number of recommendations:

• Help market towns to meet growing retail challenges with better access to government business and economic support funds.
• Activate the Town Centre Initiative Fund, announced in April 2009, and ensure that market towns and larger villages are eligible to apply.
• Urge local authorities to encourage change of use for empty retail space, with business or community benefits.
• Roll-out more widely the British Property Federation’s initiative on more flexible rent payments for tenants.
• Give better access to job seeking and training opportunities.
• In its review of planning policy, ensure that the economic balance of town centres is fully taken into account when assessing the need for out-of-town shopping centres.

Chris Wade, Chief Executive of Action for Market Towns, said: “The closure of a chain store or a big local employer can have a devastating effect on a small town compared to a major city. For example, more than half of the former Woolworth stores in market towns are still empty, leaving a big gap on our towns’ high streets.

“It is vital that steps are taken to ensure that our market towns emerge from the recession as prosperous places and those local economies are not devastated. In our towns, for the past decade, local councils and community partnerships have shown how successful they can be in developing projects to improve the vitality of their town. Support for this community-led planning is important in the months and years ahead to get our towns through the recession.

“Action for Market Towns is playing its part by helping towns to share their ideas and best practice in tackling the recession. We need government to back this with practical help.”

...more than half of the former Woolworth stores in market towns are still
empty...

Chris Wade - Action for Market Towns

Roger Turner Head of Rural Economies at the Commission for Rural Communities said: “Market towns are essential to the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of England's rural areas – providing jobs, housing and services for residents and for communities in surrounding rural areas.

“In the economic downturn, market towns have been particularly hard hit. Businesses have closed and jobs have been lost, many resulting from decisions made by national retail chains and changes within large companies’ supply chains. Historically, employment has been consistently higher in the countryside, but some of the steepest rises in unemployment rates have been in rural areas.

“We are working to ensure the impacts that job losses and closures in market towns can have on rural economies are understood and to ensure funding and support is made available and useful, including helping tackle the problem with empty shops. Market towns have a key role in helping lift the economy out of recession. They have great potential, not only as traditional service centres, but also as centres for tourism and new business and the hub for local products and services and their marketing and distribution.”