PLACE

REVIVE & THRIVE’S
32
COMMENT
A comment
piece by Simon
Quin
Simon is a Director and Visiting Professor
at the Institute of Place Management
but wrote this piece in a personal
capacity.
I have been working to support town
centre sustainability for twenty five
years. In that time, a lot has changed
and perhaps centres have, on the
whole, proved more resilient than some
forecasts have suggested. However,
retail expenditure in town centres has
continued to decline and the success of
online retailing is proving a considerable
challenge. How will centres respond?
Work I was engaged in with the Institute
of Place Management a couple of years
ago, identified through a review of
the literature and work with 10 town
centre partnerships, that there are
some 201 factors that impact on town
centre vitality and viability. We were
able to identify the most significant
twenty-five of these. These are factors
that are controllably locally, by the
establishment of effective partnerships,
and that leading academic, policy and
practitioner experts identify as having
the most significant impact on vitality
and viability. Two of these factors:
networks and partnerships, and vision
and leadership are both critical locally
but I believe are also relevant nationally.
In this year of the unexpected where
there appears to be a desire to take back
control, it would seem appropriate to
look at existing higher level networks
and partnerships and ask whether
they are serving the needs of our
town and city centres and those who
manage them as well as they could. I
therefore welcome Revive & Thrive’s
suggestion that a review of the services
they provide should be undertaken.
I particularly welcome the suggested
approach that this review should not
be led by the core team but rather
by the members and friends of the
organisation. Does the offer meet the
needs of those it is trying to serve? Do
UK town and city centres get the best
support possible from what is now
available or is change needed?
In embarking on such a review, the
question of where the vision and
leadership arises is important. We have
all worked in town centres where lots of
stakeholders are ready to blame other
people (‘the retailers’, ‘the Council’
etc) for deficiencies and suggest that if
only they did something things would
be better. I have seen that where
this is turned to asking what can I
personally do to change things, what is
my responsibility, how can I work with
others to make changes, then the results
are far more rapid and beneficial for
the centre. Revive & Thrive are seeking
input and this is the opportunity to
seize the initiative and demonstrate
that what you have learned in your day
job about networks and partnerships,
about collaboration and about meeting
customer needs and expectations can be
translated to create a service that is the
one you need, but to do that you need
to be part of the process.
I was involved in setting the Institute of
Place Management up ten years ago. We
made radical decisions about a new kind
of body designed to provide professional
support to individuals who are working
to make places better. We learned from
the experience of other organisations
around the world and in other fields and
we involved many people in the process.
Over the last 10 years we have reviewed
and revised our approach and some
things have been abandoned and others
adopted. We today have some 1300
fellows, members and friends around
the world who are actively developing
themselves as professionals in place
management. The Institute, however,
never sought to be a UK network
focused on towns and cities, though
we do extensive research in this area.
Such organisations already existed but
the landscape is changing just as town
centres themselves are.
In June this year, I participated in the
World Towns Leadership Summit in
Edinburgh. This was a great event
which generated a lot of new ideas
from an international gathering. As a
result of this, I have no hesitation in
saying that in the review of how Revive
& Thrive operates and what it offers,
I would urge you to take a personal
involvement. To think about how your
needs are currently met by them or
other organisations you belong to and
also be clear about what is missing or
wrong with current offers. It is perhaps
not often enough that you get this
opportunity and when it comes we
should not be bound by traditional
approaches but have bold ideas, think
of radical approaches, look at the best
of international experience and design
something that suits the fast-changing
world, even if it is re-imagined or redone
in five or ten years as the world changes.
I welcome the opportunity to input into
this process.