Measuring and Managing Success in Town Centre Regeneration

Chris Wade, Chief Executive, Action for Market Towns Why measure? What get's measured; gets done! It's great to instinctively do things because you know they will deliver results and improve your town. As work progresses to intervene in the social and economic complexities of our town centres; it's good also to understand more about your community and what works from one place to another. Measuring success helps understand and clarify what you are trying to achieve; boosts moral (hopefully!) by valuing progress in different directions; and enables comparisons between different projects and places. A simple management tool From AMT's experience of measuring change in over 100 towns through our town centre economic 'benchmarking' processi; we find it works well if the process is simple; affordable; comparable between places and over time; easy to use and understand by busy people within Government and at the sharp end! Measuring town performance should be a practical tool that is useful in the local management of town centre improvement and helps cumulatively assess the success of policy delivery at the national level. Be wary of anyone who says that only either 'bottom-up' or 'top-down' monitoring is really important! Recognising different types of towns To be able to compare progress its helpful to be able to recognise different types of towns. For example, in a Welsh context Flintshire Council has identified the different functions of its coastal market towns. Across England, AMT has worked with the Rural Evidence Research Centre and used Census data to divide 1500 towns in to eight different types of town according to population characteristicsii. In 2008 Scottish Enterprise undertook analysis of the size and economic function of Scottish towns, cities and their 'hinterlands' to identify different building blocksiii. As 2011 Census data comes on stream from spring 2013; it would be a good time to look again at an appropriate 'typology' that will help practitioners compare and policy makers understand the 'finer grain' that

distinguishes communities. What is important, is an objective and consistent approach.

Measuring town centre success in Scotland The key to developing and using a workable system for measuring and managing town centre performance in Scotland, seems to be adhering to the basic principles of simplicity, affordability and consistency in a way that addresses previously identified priorities identified by the Town Centres and Local High Streets Learning Networkiv for: an holistic approach to regenerating
and managing town centres; the need to reach a consensus on and develop a related suite of indicators that can be applied in a consistent fashion to measure performance.

These previous discussions about developing a key performance framework for towns, categorised potential indicators by the three broad headings of place; people and work. Neatly these categorises align with the Scottish Government's broad regeneration physical, social and economic outcomes
sought in the 2011 Regeneration Strategy; Achieving a Sustainable Futurev, as summarised in the table below.

Physical (place) Well planned, designed & maintained. Infrastructure fosters connectivity, growth & community cohesion Availability and quality of housing across all tenures

Social (people) Town centres act as social & economic hub Access to community facilities and local services Effective community networks and empowerment Good health and feel safe

Economic (Work) Thriving town centres Strong local economies, business support, employment& investment Learning & development opportunities

Any approach to develop town centre performance indicators, should therefore look beyond traditional indicators such as retail vacancy rates and capture the enriched characteristics sought by government and practitioners as the drivers for enhancing the quality of Scottish towns. What next? The structure represented by this summary table of priorities and potential indicators for a Scottish town centre revival; seem a great basis

for further discussions. Add to that the Government's Town Centre Review is set to report as Census data will come on stream; the time seems right to develop a practicable approach for comparing towns by type and measuring and managing their enhancement using an enriched set of indicators. Get in touch if you want to join us in working with Scotland's Town Group, Scottish BIDs, Development Trust Association Scotland, University of Stirling Institute for Retail Studies and Scottish Government representatives to shape and deliver this. In the meantime, this is our recommendation: To develop an 'enriched' benchmarking system of key indicators that provides baseline data that can be monitored annually to track progress and influence management and decision-making. Importantly this information should be manageable and affordable to collect and be understandable to a range of stakeholders from a local to national level. In addition the process should involve recognising different types of town to enable comparisons between towns.

AMT. Market Town Benchmarking: http://towns.org.uk/amt-i/town-benchmarking/

ii

RERC-AMT, 2009. Typology for Small Towns: http://towns.org.uk/2009/05/28/new-researchon-types-of-towns/

iii

Scottish Enterprise, 2008. Understanding the Role of Places in City Regions and Rural Scotland: http://www.scottishenterprise.com/~/media/SE/Resources/Documents/STUV/Understanding-the-role-of-places.ashx
iv

Scottish Government, 2010. Developing a Key Performance Framework for your Town :http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/94257/0120072.pdf
v

Scottish Government , 2011 Regeneration Strategy; Achieving a Sustainable Future: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/12/09110320/0