A Time of Political Change

ATCM’s 2024 so far, and what comes next

This first half of the year has been hugely consequential for town centres in the UK and Ireland. The team at ATCM have worked hard to stay on top of all the issues that matter to ensure members have the support they need.

As we return following the Summer holidays, here’s an update of what we have been up to so far this year, and what comes next for the remainder of 2024.

KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE
Once again, ATCM has attempted to host the very best place management events throughout the year. This has included:

The 2024 Place Management Conference
We Need to Talk About Housing!
With increasing pressure to convert commercial space in town centres to housing, this year’s Place Management Conference explored the implications for the industry in terms of funding, stakeholder management, planning, licensing and a range of other issues.

Cathy Francis, Director for Places, Infrastructure and Housing Delivery at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government discussed the role of public policy in bringing commercial and residential together to create great town centres.

Ruth Duston OBE, OC, Managing Director of Primera Corporation, chaired a panel debate on the challenges for the place management industry caused by flipping commercial property to housing including the financial pressure for BIDs.

Summer School 2024
Innovation in Town and City Climate Action
This year’s Summer School took on the topic of sustainability in Glasgow exploring the role of the place management industry in climate action. Summer School Day 2 was dominated by workshops, panel debates and interactive sessions.

Professor Carlos Moreno discussed the 15 Minute City, exploring the role of conspiracy theories and their unhelpful impact on placemaking.

An international panel debated 'How Can We Finance Climate Action?' exploring the relevance of Climate Improvement Districts, Positive Energy Districts, and other models for investing in adaptation and mitigation measures.

Network Events
The re-introduction of our valued network meetings post-pandemic continues providing members with excellent networking opportunities. So far, we have held meetings across the UK and Ireland including:

Darlington
Athlone
Solihull

ATCM Ireland met in Athlone in April for a discussion on evening and night time economy. Further meetings are scheduled for the second half of the year.

Virtual Events
Despite the return of our in-person network events, we have pledged to continue our virtual events, including the popular High Street Conversations.

We have hosted many virtual events so far this year, including the following:

High Street Conversations
Christmas 2023 Review and 2024 Preview
25th Jan 2024

High Street Conversations
Confronting Crime
18th April 24

High Street Conversations
The Long-Term Plan for Towns
2 May 2024

REPRESENTATION
2024 has been a busy year politically.

On the 4th July, the UK went to the polls, leading to the end of a Conservative-led government for the first time since 2010. Inevitably, this means a shift in public policy on many key issues. However, this is not the whole story.

Across the UK Parliament, a number of MPs who have played a critical role to the high streets agenda over a number of years no longer sit in the House of Commons including former Local Growth Minister, Dehenna Davison, Former Levelling Up Secretary, Michael Gove, and former High Streets Minister, Marcus Jones. We have had elections for local government and metro mayors. There has been political turbulence in Scotland with the end to the SNP-led coalition government, and the Welsh government is on its third First Minister this year. Northern Ireland has seen the return of Stormont while Ireland prepares for its own General Election.

Much of the year has been spent consulting on policies with members and engaging with civil servants. In person meetings have taken place in Glasgow and London while virtual meetings have taken place with the ATCM Advisory Council with the broader membership and with civil servants in Belfast and Westminster.

The meetings that have taken place include:

ATCM NI
Supporting High Streets (Policy and Practice)
6th February 2024

High Street Conversations
Preparing for a UK General Election
7th March 2024

High Street Conversations
General Election Special
28th June 2024

As a result of these meetings, ATCM has published ‘Aiming Even Higher: Manifesto for London’s Town Centres’ and ‘Manifesto for UK Town Centres’. Some of the headline policies include increased funding for growth related public services such as town centre management, the modernisation of the BIDs model and the creation of new governance models to reduce fragmentation in the form of High Street Trusts. Following the return of UK Parliament this Autumn, ATCM will start to build a relationship with the new government to start the process of promoting these policies.

2024 Manifesto for London's Town Centres.jpg

'20 Years of BIDs' at the UK Real Estate Investment & Infrastructure Forum
With the support of LeedsBID and in partnership with The BID Foundation and British BIDs, ATCM represented the place management industry at UKREIIF, taking part in panel debates on behalf of members and meeting with key stakeholders across the built environment sector.

The BID Foundation, British BIDs and ATCM combine with LeedsBID to celebrate 20 Years of BIDs at UKREIIF.

STANDARDS
ATCM continues to work with the place management industry to maintain and improve standards. This work is taking place with partners across the globe.

So far this year, we have be involved in the following:

Purple Flag
Purple Flag continues its growth internationally. 2024 saw Paceville achieve accreditation, bringing Malta into the Purple Flag network for the first time. We also hosted the first ever virtual Purple Flag International meeting.

A Maltese delegation collects their Purple Flag certificate at the Awards Dinner in Glasgow.

The first ever Purple Flag International virtual event was themed 'Co-Designing Safe Places' and took place in May.

New South Wales has undertaken its pilot of Purple Flag following the successful accreditation of Marrickville, Parramatta, Lakemba and YCK Laneways. This Summer, the ATCM CEO, Ojay McDonald, visited Sydney to explore the Purple Flag destinations for the first time and met some of the people working to make the city a great 24 hour destination.

ATCM CEO, Ojay McDonald, meets with the New South Wales 24 Hour Commissioner, Michael Rodrigues, for a tour of the Greater Sydney area to visit Purple Flag districts.

Business owners Karl Schlothauer and Nick White talked to ATCM CEO, Ojay McDonald, about the how they have galvanised the night time business community to develop YCK Laneways, hidden in Sydney's CBD.

Across the UK and Ireland, Purple Flag continues to play an important role in supporting best practice in the management of evening and night time economies. Award ceremonies have now taken place in Nottingham and Glasgow. There has also been a roundtable meeting on safety at night and a virtual meeting on supporting hospitality.

A team from Chelmsford collected their Purple Flag Award in Nottingham earlier this year.

The Purple Flag Forum
Supporting Hospitality
30 Jan 2024

Town and City Management Industry Awards
The TCMI Awards returned for 2024, taking place at Summer School 2024. This year saw the creation of a new accolade, the Climate Action Award, won in its inaugural year by Team London Bridge.

Click here to find out more about our 2024 award winners.

Ojay McDonald presents the Climate Action Award to Team London Bridge.

ADDED VALUE
ATCM has worked with a range of partners to support our members and high street businesses in different ways.

Supporting Food Businesses
The American Express grant scheme, run in partnership with the IDA Foundation, returned for another year, this time covering Manchester as well as London. A range of businesses in both city regions will get the opportunity to invest in their premises as a result of this international scheme.

Working with Partners
ATCM is delighted to continue to work with a range of suppliers who support the day-to-day work of our members. Huge thank you to those who continue to help high street thrive.

Hemiko are working with local authorities and BIDs to bring heat networks to town centres across the UK.

As part of Brixton BIDs 10th anniversary AGM, ATCM facilitated a contribution from TikTok's Amanda Uduku, who discussed how the social media platform is supporting small businesses.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE SECOND HALF OF 2024
Like most years, we have been busy. However, we are not done yet.

This Summer has been dominated by news of social unrest in the UK with similar challenges earlier in the year in Dublin. ATCM will kick off our September events programme with a High Street Conversations double header on the riots, assessing the economic impact and how the place management industry responds.

From late September, we have three big events. Firstly, ATCM is supporting Revo’s Village and Conference on 24th September which will provide a chance for local authorities looking to drive inward investment and BIDs wanting to engage with national levypayers.

On the 8th October, the ATCM Cities Conference, powered by CityCo, will take place in Manchester. ‘City Centre Management in the 21st Century' will bring together Big City BIDs, local government, policymakers and others across the UK and Ireland.

Then, on the 17th October, the Purple Flag Awards take place in Cambridge. This event, celebrating best practice in the management of the evening and night time economies will include a study tour of the famous city before the awards dinner.

In addition to this, we also have a range of in-person network events, virtual events and hope to be back in UK Parliament following the Party Conference Season.

No rest for the wicked!