Pete Mudge oversees 64 suburban excessive streets throughout town as a part of his position as Leeds Council’s neighbourhood centres co-ordinator.
Mr Mudge, who successfully acts a conduit between the council and native businesses in every single place from Moortown from Morley, stated unbiased merchants may fill the hole left behind by main excessive avenue chains.
There are widespread fears for the way forward for retail centres and the impression on them from on-line purchasing and working-from-home tradition.
But talking in an interview with the LDRS, Mr Mudge stated he was optimistic about the way forward for small excessive streets.
“I think the potential for these areas has never been stronger,” he stated.
“With high streets chains pulling out everywhere, it’s not the case now that you can go to the town nextdoor, because they won’t be there either.
“There’s more businesses now outside the city centre than there were pre-pandemic. The reason being I guess is as a big high street chain shuts down, people look for alternatives and they set up their own shops.
“We’re finding more independents now.”
Mr Mudge stated that vast challenges remained for businesses within the small cities and suburbs that serve the vast majority of Leeds’ 800,000-strong inhabitants.
Covid, the cost-of-living disaster and the departure of excessive avenue banks, which has made it extra difficult for outlets to access money for tills, have all contributed to a troublesome local weather.
But he stated native outlets, pubs and eating places have been more and more clubbing collectively to make the areas round them extra enticing.
Some, corresponding to The Hyde Park Club, stage cultural occasions and reveals and even host chess evenings, in a bid to widen their provide.
Mr Mudge additionally stated the will for native excessive streets to blossom tied in with the council’s pursuit of 15-minute neighbourhoods, which might assist individuals access providers nearer to home.
He added: “There was a YouGov poll which suggested that the age group which missed their high streets the most during lockdown was people in their teens and twenties, and not the elderly.
“That surprised me, because you’d think it’d be the other way round, but it’s really encouraging.
I’ve no doubt that once we do get through the cost-of-living crisis, our local centres will be absolutely fantastic places and will have a huge amount of people shopping in them.
“I think people do identify with their local areas by and large as well. That offers a bright future and it’s heartening.”
