Working-class young people's submission features in the House of Lords report on High Streets

RECLAIM Young People have contributed to and featured in the House of Lords Select Committee report on High Streets: Life Beyond Retail.

The process began with our Young Policy Makers (YPM) in Bolton and Leigh considering how high streets aren’t built for them or their communities. 

They concluded that high streets are often developed to make huge amounts of money for a small group of big business owners through retail (selling things). 

Consequently, RECLAIM’s Young Policy Makers group (YPM) wants to challenge and change the status quo. 

Working-class change-making is about building grassroots power from the bottom up. When we come together in our communities, we have the power to make collective change. 

We mustn’t depend on a small number of powerholders in government to change for us. 

However, sometimes it’s useful to let the government know what we’re doing and to get an idea of what the government is doing. This helps us to get our voices heard far and wide and to work out the most effective ways of creating the change we need.

In this blog, we’ll explain what a Select Committee is, before outlining what we contributed to the report, what we learnt, and plans for what happens next.

YPM members brainstorming with Senior Youth Worker Kofi

What is a select committee? 

A Select Committee is a group of specialists who research key topics and then report their findings and suggestions to the government. For example, there are Select Committees for sports, education, and the environment, among other topics. The Select Committee on the Built Environment developed this report. 

The Select Committee gathers evidence by talking to specialists and organisations knowledgeable on a certain topic. They sometimes visit relevant places and send surveys out to certain members of the public.

The Select Committee will then assemble the information and recommend actions to the government on certain issues. The government doesn't have to follow these recommendations but a response is expected.

What was this report about? 

The current state of high streets has been a worry for government politicians for some time. Shops and community spaces keep closing, and people are less likely to visit. The High Streets report was created to suggest ways to develop high streets that serve the communities that use them.

A short animation exploring the demise of Britain's high streets due to job losses, online shopping, supermarket growth, and austerity—and what they could look like in the future.

What did RECLAIM contribute to the report? 

We drew on the work done by YPM, our Listen Up! campaign, and members of Our Space.

We submitted evidence to the report, emphasising the need for young people to have access to free, safe and accessible places on the high street, (where they can spend time with friends without having to pay) and opportunities to learn new skills and be creative. 

Here are some of the observations and requests made by each group:

Young Policy Makers

The Young Policy Makers groups in Bolton and Leigh discussed the desolation of local high streets, particularly in Bolton, where many empty units reflect a lack of affordable opportunities for young people. In Leigh, the town centre is similarly underdeveloped, with limited youth engagement or employment.

‘The high street in Leigh has Leigh sports village, the stadium, and Whistling Wren, a pub’ - RECLAIM young person.

The group also highlighted the state of local green spaces, saying they are often poorly maintained and unwelcoming. YPM expressed frustration with the lack of investment in public spaces.

Young people emphasised the need for more accessible and engaging spaces in their town centres, and more involvement on how funding is spent.

YPM's SWOT Analysis of high streets

Manchester Manifesto

The Manchester Manifesto campaign called for Mayor Andy Burnham to invest in more youth centres and spaces across Greater Manchester.

Some of their demands included a wider range of accessible arts, culture, and entertainment for young people, a ‘youth green space quota’ to guarantee equal access to green spaces, free transport to high streets and spaces to learn new skills like cooking and music. 

They expressed frustration that working-class young people have no input in shaping their future high streets, and want to be involved in planning and delivering these services.

Our Space

The Our Space manifesto outlined several key demands for working-class young people regarding their access to public spaces. It called for accessible and inclusive spaces, such as prayer areas in libraries and reduced ticket prices for those from low-income backgrounds.

It prioritises safety, with measures like support systems and designated guardians on public transport. Public spaces should also be staffed by trained individuals who understand young people's issues, with a focus on anti-racism and creating respectful, inclusive environments free from stereotyping and criminalisation.

Young people should also have a say in decisions about public spaces, with policies co-created and consultations during development stages.

As a result, our observations and requests were featured in the report:

 ‘We heard about the value of people having space to socialise and spend time without spending money on the high street and the importance of green spaces on or near the high street. Young people working with RECLAIM, a charity working with young working class people, said that green spaces in their local area were less accessible and pleasant when they were poorly kept’ - report excerpt.

You can read our full submission of written evidence here.

What did we learn from the report? 

One of the main things we learned was the main powerholders on the high street. The report broke this down into a few main categories:

• Local Authorities (the council) - the council develops the long-term plans for what town centres should look like. They also own some of the property on the high street and can rent this out to community projects for low or no cost. 

• Businesses - businesses have a significant role in shaping the high street by coming together to make decisions in groups called Business Improvement Districts. 

• Landlords - private landlords own most of the property on the high street. They rent out this property to make money from it. Landlords frequently leave shops empty on the high street and can be difficult to contact.

• Communities - communities can sometimes voice their opinions through Town Boards. Communities will have greater power on the high street through the Community Right to Buy, which will give community groups the priority on buying up any local buildings for sale.

We had mixed feelings about some of the report's findings and suggestions. Here are some opportunities and challenges.

Opportunities:

• The report expresses the importance of listening to community guidance.

• The report suggests moving away from retail (buying and selling) as the focus of the high street, and towards key services and community spaces, such as libraries, museums and mental health services.

Challenges:

• The report doesn’t challenge the fact that landlords and private business owners are among the greatest powerholders on the high street. We disagree with this because the people who use the high streets should own them.

• The report doesn’t consider how communities can have a more meaningful role in shaping high streets, and groups like Town Boards can often become tokenistic.

What Next? 

Our YPM group is busy creating a strategy for their campaign. Here are the vision and aims:

Vision:

1. A world where all young people have somewhere free to relax, socialise, be creative, and get all the essential things they need.

Aims: 

1. Use empty buildings for communities and young people

2. Young people and local people making decisions about their area

3. Young people in positions of power and accountability 

4. Bring homeless activism and youth activism together 

We've been looking at Crompton Place in Bolton, as a place to start building a campaign which brings these aims to life.

Crompton Place is a shopping centre in the middle of Bolton closed down for redevelopment. 

The council have shared plans to attract property developers, who will gentrify the area by building restaurants, bars and office spaces. 

Not only will this space exclude young and working-class people, it will increase rents in the surrounding area, making it more difficult for working-class people to continue living there. 

We want Crompton Place to stay in council ownership so that they can build communal, accessible community spaces and resources that serve the whole community.

Article Key terms

Tokenistic - including certain people to look better, without giving these people any actual power, or making any of the changes they suggest.

Grassroots - grassroots movements use the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political movement.

Youth engagement - youth engagement is when young people participate in meaningful opportunities and roles that allow them to build on their strengths, take on responsibilities, and contribute to decisions that affect them.

Town Board - a group of community members who come together to support decision-making about their local areas.

Gentrify - changing the character of an urban area through wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, often displacing current inhabitants in the process.

SUPPORT OUR WORK ON HIGH STREETS

You can support the work of RECLAIM and our young people to make high streets serve the communities that use them by donating to our cause.