How Northampton town centre will emerge from the pandemic...and why there are reasons to be positive

Northampton town centre will emerge from the pandemic not as one reliant on national chains but one that offers a diversity unique to the town, business leaders have said.

Mark Mullen, operations manager for Northampton Town Centre Business Improvement District, said the impact of Covid-19 had been "phenomenal" but he was positive about the opportunities for the future.

"We will collectively come out of this. We may come out differently now than we anticipated we thought we would do, and the town is transitioning, but at times of hardship and challenge the most positive opportunities can come," he said.

Before the pandemic struck and the first national lockdown began, Northampton had already created a vision for the future of the town centre that provided a greater mix of retail, leisure and housing.

Over the Christmas period, the town was provisionally awarded more than £8m from the Government. Had this plan not been in place, the future prospects of the town would have been bleak. It is a vision that is not one that is the sole property of one organisation in the town driving it through regardless, but a joint one that is shared and created by many of those with a stake in the town centre.

And it is this vision that plays an important role in leading the town centre out of the current situation.

Change was coming but the impact of the pandemic has accelerated the timescale of that change...and the necessity for it.

Mark said: "We will see a future high street that is no longer reliant or built on the foundations of the mass corporate chains but one where more smaller, local businesses offer a large scale of diversity to make Northampton completely different.

"We will start to see a lot of towns creating their own points of difference and their uniqueness," he added.

These are views echoed by Ian Ferguson, strategic director for Partnerships for Better Business UK which works with Northampton Town Centre BID, who says Northampton is in a strong position, especially with the funding to develop the Market Square.

"The market will become the hub of commercial activity in the future whereas in the past it has become secondary to the Grosvenor Centre and Abington Street. The town's cultural quarter also has a massive range of opportunities," Ian explained.

The pandemic has seen Northampton Town Centre BID offer support for businesses in a variety of different ways.

"We started last year planning outdoor events and festivals, but they have been replaced with other things that have been beneficial to businesses," Mark said.

Some of the highlights include paying for two police officers in the town centre, relaunching the BID website to help showcase all the great things the town's businesses had to offer, giving support and guidance of new legislation and grant opportunities, setting up a click and collect service and creating recovery packs for businesses. BID members also gave out more than 12,000 face masks to shops to ensure their customers, and staff, were safe.

"It has been a torrid time but it has given us the chance to show what we are capable of. Our members are appreciative of what we have done and they are grateful for the support," Mark said.

Ian added: "The collaboration has really come to the fore through working together with the local authorities to ensure there has been a co-ordinated approach to supporting the town centre."

Northampton has, like towns and cities across the country, been hit hard by the impact of the lockdowns. But it is doing better than most. Northampton's current footfall, although down more than 60 per cent on this time last year, is higher than the national average.

Mark said: "It is important to put things into context. There is a lot of hope for the future but that is reliant on exiting Covid as quickly as possible."