Legal & General call for high street re-imagining
London is the only region in the UK where more than half of residents felt positive about their high street.
According to the latest Legal & General’s Rebuilding Britain Index, 58% of Londoners were enthused by their high street.
The index lays bare the scale of the challenge facing Britain’s towns and cities with only two-in-five people (42%) in the UK rating their local high street as good or very good.
The region with the most negative perception of the high street is Wales, where only one-third (33%) rate their high street positively, Legal & General said. This was followed closely behind by Scotland (34%) and the South West (37%).
Yet 30% of respondents said investment into the local high street was a key government spending priority.
John Godfrey, director of levelling-up at Legal & General, said the high street played a crucial role in levelling up towns and cities across the UK.
“Vibrant, healthy communities are the places where people want to live, work and play over the long term. We have long advocated for better and more targeted investment of patient capital in the high street as to accelerate regeneration, drive productivity and increase real wages,” Godfrey said.
“The best way to do this is through partnership; our work with local people, businesses and authorities has reinforced the power of partnerships in levelling-up local economies – this is key to ensure relevancy and resiliency, over the long term.”
The Legal & General RBI was established to measure the UK’s progress in levelling up on a quarterly basis, surveying 20,000 people and tracking social and economic progress across 52 measures, including housing, jobs & economic prosperity, environment, energy and transport.