Developing Resilient Town Centres

What makes a resilient town centre? This paper, aimed at people working to support their high street, town or city centre, provides an overview of what it means to be ‘resilient’, and draws on lessons from nine locations to help create strong policies, form sustainable partnerships and develop appropriate projects in local centres throughout the UK and Ireland.

Resilient towns are those which have the ability to respond to challenges they face, to be adaptable and flexible in the face of change. This means it is important to have the right blend of interactions between the public, social and commercial sectors, with a culture of joint working between them all that results in positive outcomes for places. This is shown in Figure 1 – across the research in the nine locations it was evidence of this type of interconnection and linkages that were being sought. Towns that understand that they are part of an inter-connected system of partners from all sectors will be best positioned to be able to address challenges and exploit opportunities that come their way.