You may have noticed that there is a General Election in the air. As a registered charity the Coventry Society plays no part in party politics. But that doesn’t mean that we take no interest in politics in the wider sense. We are a campaigning organisation and politics is in our blood.
But we are a small organisation with limited capacity for policy development work and action on our own. For that reason, we join together with civic societies up and down the country to work and campaign together. Civic Voice is our umbrella group, which makes sure that together we have a larger collective voice in decision making circles.
For this election Civic Voice has published a manifesto, setting out the changes that we would like any new government to take. The Coventry Society has adopted this manifesto to steer our own thinking and to share with all the candidates in the three Coventry constituencies.
Because of the importance of the General Election and the Civic Voice manifesto we have decided to devote all this week’s news blogs to this subject. Today we focus on High Streets and Town Centres. On Wednesday we cover the Historic Environment and on Friday we cover Housing and Planning.
You can download the whole manifesto here.
The Civic Voice Manifesto 2024 – 2028
Civic Voice remains as dedicated as we were when we published our first manifesto in 2011 to create a country where every individual can proudly say, “I am proud of where I live.”
Since our launch in 2010, Civic Voice has championed the empowerment of local communities, inspiring local people and businesses to take pride in their surroundings and actively participate in their improvement. In this manifesto, we outline our policy aims across three key areas: high streets and town centres, historic environment, and housing and planning. From ensuring adequate funding for local government to advocating for community involvement in local placemaking, our proposals are rooted in the belief that community engagement is vital for shaping the places we call home.
We strive to create places where the historic environment is cherished, housing is available to all, and high streets are vibrant hubs of community activity. Taken together, these aims will boost pride in our places.
We hope you will join us on this mission.
High Streets and Town Centres
It is important to recognise that our high streets and town centres have always evolved, responding to new services, shopping habits, and technology; and they will continue to do so. We welcome the recent direction of travel from the Government, but we need to go much further.
We have been consistent for several years that we are not persuaded that the Government has sufficient evidence to justify the expansion in permitted development rights. We continue to see the conversion of unsuitable retail units into poor-quality housing in response to an escalating housing crisis. Permitted development rights were extended in 2021 to allow change of use between Use Class E properties and residential units, putting at risk all high street properties of flipping to homes. The disconnected approach undermines councils’ and their communities’ ability to make decisions that reflect local needs and preserve and enhance the unique and distinctive character of an area. We ask a future Government to revoke these rights as they undermine the ability to plan.
We want to see even more place-based policy, and a further commitment to a meaningful Levelling Up Agenda, as well as maintaining the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Community Ownership Funds. We need to continue increasing devolution, not just to mayoral or combined authorities, but also ‘double-devolution’ down-to-place partnerships, such as Town Boards or High Street partnerships, consisting of communities. We call on the Government to provide additional funding for local authorities to build place partnerships and place leadership.
Reform the business rates system to provide relief for high street businesses, particularly small and independent retailers, to alleviate financial pressure and to be modernised to ensure that sectors such as online businesses make a fair contribution.
To support the regeneration of declining high streets and town centres, the Government should publish a bi-annual list of high streets and town centres setting out what interventions are being planned for their improvement.
