00:00Across Wales the concern about town centres is not only about shops closing, it's about
00:05what happens to places when empty units remain, footfall falls and the street begins to feel
00:12less useful to the community around it. The Welsh Government has responded with an additional £12.6
00:18million for regeneration projects announced in 2026, including work in Swansea, Newport,
00:25Cardiff, Pontyprief and other towns. It's also created a town centre task force to look at how
00:31these places should adapt. That matters because shopping habits supporting them have changed.
00:38Office for National Statistics figures show online sales accounted for 28.8% of retail spending across
00:46Great Britain in August 2026. A website can offer convenience and price without paying for a
00:52prominent shop front in the middle of town. Yet people still say they want attractive centres,
00:58independent businesses and somewhere to meet. The difficult part is connecting those two things.
01:04Across Wales regeneration is increasingly about bringing housing, services, food, leisure and
01:10community uses into town centres. So their future does not depend on retail alone for generations ahead.
01:17We've been talking about the decline of the high street for years it seems to me. When we're
01:22talking about the online retailers, of course I don't have to mention who they are, they have the
01:27ability to bulk buy. But of course they don't have shops, it's done by clicks rather than bricks.
01:32There is no doubt of course that vacant premises, they look unsightly and it becomes slightly hostile
01:37places if people want to go in. So what you've got to do is make them more attractive. Now of
01:43course
01:43that's to do with spending money by the local authority primarily, although we have groups such as
01:49business improvement districts and they put money into making the environment more pleasant.
01:54But of course you've got to still attract people to want to go in there and if it's not for
01:58shopping,
01:58and I do think that there will always be some high street presence, although it continues to be in
02:03decline, it's about the things that we want to do to meet up. So it's about leisure, health perhaps,
02:09we know that gyms and the sort of like, you've got to have a multi-agency
02:14approach. But of course it always requires money and once sort of retailers vacate those premises,
02:20don't let them go into decline because of course it makes it all more difficult to bring them back
02:23to sort of to a proper usage. In Wales the response is being led by the Welsh Government.
02:30Its Transforming Towns programme has invested hundreds of millions of pounds since 2020,
02:35with additional funding announced in 2026 for projects from Swansea to Newport. A town centre task force
02:43has been established to advise Ministers on what comes next. The challenge is similar everywhere,
02:50making town centres useful enough that people choose to visit, spend money and importantly keep coming back.
