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Changing consumer trends, waves of retail decentralisation, and various socio-economic and environmental shocks have exacerbated the well-recognised challenges of retail-dominant English high streets in recent years. The decline and ‘death’ of the high street has been the subject of many policy responses aiming at transforming high streets as viable multifunctional hubs and local community anchors. However, this vision implies a narrative change of high street viability beyond established economic and property-oriented interpretations, which is presently unclear in conceptual and operational terms. This paper identifies the conceptual ambiguities and tensions evident in English policy and reframes high street viability at the confluence of other ‘loose concepts’ (sustainability, resilience, adaptability, liveability). Through a scoping review, this paper synthesises studies discussing these interrelated concepts, and presents their development since the influential URBED Vital and Viable Town Centres report. We argue that the factors contributing to the interrelated concepts form a joint effort towards achieving high street viability, but can also be distinguished by temporal variations and areas of concentration.

Our critical review of the academic literature suggests that the term ‘viability’ is often used interchangeably with the terms, ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’, and specifically in relation to aspects of town centres and High Streets transcends mere economic conceptualizations and indicators. Therefore, broadening the scope of viability - to include the interconnected social (and cultural), technological, environmental, and political aspects - appears a logical course of action.

Footfall is a key indicator of a town centre’s vitality and viability; it tells us much about the nature of high streets, how they are used, and how they are changing. Yet despite its importance, the majority of high streets do not monitor footfall. This is a serious barrier to understanding the situation facing England’s towns as they attempt to recover from the impact of COVID-19 and achieve longer-term transformation. This report examines research based on footfall data from 154 locations in England, provided by Springboard. It also looks at the immediate impact of COVID-19 and the prospects for high street recovery, using mobile phone location and other data in four case study locations (Manchester, Ashford, Cleethorpes and Windsor).

Footfall is a simple indicator that tells us a lot about the nature of high streets, how they are used and how they are changing. It has been a key indicator of a town centre’s vitality and viability since the publication of Planning Policy Guidance Note 6 Town Centres and Retail Development in 1993. From footfall data from Springboard, for around 180 high streets, we have been able to draw a number of conclusions about the annual performance of high streets, during the second year of Task Force operations (from July 2020 to June 2021).

COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on towns and cities throughout the world. However, with the gradual easing of lockdown policies in most countries, the majority of non-essential retail businesses are trying their best to bounce back both economically and socially. Nevertheless, the efforts of retail traders are hampered by uncertainty regarding what capacity measures need to be taken, and there is an urgent need to understand how social distancing can be safely followed and implemented in these spaces. This paper draws from retail space allocation, crowd science, operational research and ergonomics/biomechanics to develop a method for identifying the minimum amount of space an individual needs to socially distance in shops, markets, shopping centres and open commercial spaces, when there are other people present. The area required per person is calculated for both static space (where people are seated, standing or queuing, for example) and dynamic space (where people need to walk freely). We propose our method as a step forward in understanding the very practical problem of capacity, which can hopefully allow retail spaces to operate safely, and minimise the risk of virus transmission.