The high street is a British institution

Visited by millions of people every day, high streets have played a role in our lives for centuries and are the heartbeat of our cities and towns. They are where people work, shop and socialise, making the high street the perfect place to promote healthier behaviours.

Over the decade since the RSPH published Health on the High Street there has been no shortage of initiatives and schemes to revive our high streets, but we still aren’t seeing them become the drivers of health and wellbeing that they should be. 

Footfall on high streets has consistently declined, and 60% of the public say that they are concerned about the number of shops closing. In the face of this, there is a clear need to regenerate high streets so that they meet the needs of today’s society.

When the public are asked, an overwhelming majority think that their local high street does not have enough of the things which make it healthier. Changing this means shaping high streets in a way which actively encourages healthy behaviours.

This report brings together the expertise of the public health, planning, and business communities to set out a roadmap for every local authority to put in place the facilities and services which are needed to ensure that their high streets not only thrive, but support the local population to do the same.

Key recommendations

1. Local authorities should publish high street action plans, setting out a lead to implement the Healthy High Streets framework.

To ensure that all of the functions at the intersection of local government are pulling in the same direction, councils should publish High Street Action Plans to give a clear sense of what each function of the council can do to improve their local high streets in specific ways.

2. National Government should legislate for a statutory duty to cooperate with local authorities in creating healthy high streets as a condition of approval for private development on or around high streets.

Given that organisations from police forces to transport companies and private landlords all impact local high streets, a statutory duty to cooperate around high streets would ensure that the whole system is considered. Such a duty could also be applied to private businesses, requiring them to take reasonable steps to help create thriving high street, including social spaces, shops offering healthy options, or simply employers who look after their staff.

3. Developers should consider health outcomes as well as economic outcomes when putting together proposals for regeneration.

By taking an approach which puts health at the heart of developments, developers can not only improve the financial sustainability of their project, but ensure they have community buy-in for their proposals – reducing the barriers to development.

4. Businesses and the government should consider offering further training and support for staff working on the high street, so that they are skilled to assist colleagues and high street visitors with their health and wellbeing.

Upskilling high street staff and offering them training and support to ensure customers’ wellbeing can significantly impact the health outcomes of local communities. This would also help them support each other, as colleagues would be able to encourage each other to look after their own health.

5. Government should equalise the tax burden between in-person and remote retailers, using the dividends from this to fund improvements to our high streets.

Since 2018, RSPH has called for an end to the imbalance in tax between giant online retailers and brick-and-mortar shops. The funding raised through any such changes should be diverted in its entirety to supporting our high streets – giving local authorities the financial firepower they need to implement changes to the streetscape and public transport.