On 23 December 2025, RTPI Scotland submitted a response to the UK Parliament's inquiry on the future of Scotland's high streets. Read the response below.

About the RTPI

At the Royal Town Planning Institute (the RTPI), we champion the value of planning in building thriving places and communities. With over 27,000 members worldwide, we support planners at every stage of their career: raising professional standards, shaping planning policy, and proudly awarding chartered status, the highest professional accreditation in UK planning.

For over a century we have empowered planners to deliver positive impact: creating healthy, inclusive, economically and environmentally sustainable places. As the voice of the profession, we advocate, support, and lead with purpose, professionalism, and passion.

How are Scotland’s high streets changing? What factors are driving this change, and what does the long-term future of Scotland’s high streets and town centres look like?

Scotland’s high streets have experienced significant challenges in recent times that require us to change the way we think about and plan for their future. For example, a rise in the use of the internet for the purchase and delivery of goods, as well as new flexible- and home-working patterns and the cost-of-living crisis have contributed to a shift in the way different high streets and town centres have experienced footfall in Scotland.

Another challenge facing Scotland’s high streets is the rise in vacant and derelict land. For the year 2023, the Scottish Government reported that “over a quarter (27%) of Scotland’s population is estimated to live within 500 metres of a derelict site”, with a further 24% estimated to live between 500 metres and 1,000 metres from a derelict site. North Ayrshire Council has reported in its Vacant and Derelict Land Strategy that it has one of the highest proportions of vacant and derelict land compared to any other local authority in Scotland – 12% of all vacant and derelict land. Although it is unknown how many vacant and derelict properties are located specifically within Scotland’s high streets, the negative impacts that such sites have on public perceptions and behaviours are well documented, discouraging investment as a place to live, work and start a new business. They can also impact negatively on the accessibility of a place – acting as a barrier due to their inaccessible physical form and/or due to safety concerns (both real and perceived).

Looking to the future, diversification, innovation and collaboration will be key to ensuring that Scotland’s high streets are vibrant and attractive destinations where people want to live, work and spend their free time. This was recognised by Scottish Government policymakers in the drafting of Scotland’s Fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4). Policy 27 of NPF4 (City, town, local and commercial centres) calls for a town centre first approach “to help centres adapt positively to long-term economic, environmental and societal changes, and by encouraging town centre living” to deliver the 20-minute neighbourhood and local living policy (Policy 15). In addition, Policy 9 (Brownfield, vacant and derelict land and empty buildings) seeks to “encourage, promote and facilitate the reuse of brownfield, vacant and derelict land and empty buildings, and to help reduce the need for greenfield development”.

Planning plays an essential role in delivering the vibrant, attractive and mixed-use high streets Scotland’s communities need. Masterplan consent areas (MCA) are a particularly useful tool that have potential to address many of the challenges Scotland’s high streets are facing through a coordinated and collaborative plan-led approach to placemaking. Led by the local planning authority, MCA schemes were introduced by the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 (the 2019 Act) to streamline the consenting process for identified areas, granting consent for planning, roads construction, listed buildings and conservation areas within the one scheme. This has the benefit of enabling a joined-up approach that thinks holistically about the future of a whole place (including high streets and town centres), frontloading the consideration of various issues and bringing forward development in line with the MCA scheme without the need for a full application. We are aware of several local authorities that are considering being early adopters of MCA schemes – including Highland and Glasgow City Councils.

Local place plans (LPP) are another useful planning tool introduced by the 2019 Act with the potential to support the future of Scotland’s high streets. Led by local communities, LPPs provide an opportunity to set out the community’s proposals for the future use and development of land. Once they are registered by the planning authority, they are required to be taken into consideration in the preparation of the relevant local development plan (LDP). With adequate resources to support their preparation, LPPs have the potential to bring communities together to set out the aspirations for their places, establishing the necessary community buy-in and stewardship to deliver the future potential of Scotland’s high streets and town centres.

What has previous research found about what people in Scotland want from their high streets and town centres, especially in the context of the rise of online services?

Much research has been undertaken which looks at the challenges facing Scotland’s high streets and town centres, and the future actions that are required to address them. The RTPI was part of the Town Centre Action Plan Independent Review Group that published a report in 2021 entitled A New Future for Scotland’s Town Centres. This report was the culmination of a 6-month process that took written and verbal evidence, analysed the results of a public survey, and looked at previous town centre research across the UK. The report found that “The best of our town centres and our most successful towns offer a sustainable, local economy and society with diverse and mixed uses attracting and meeting the needs and desires of their local communities. They are centres that enhance a sense of community, place, identity and that advance equality by enabling all members of society to participate fully.” The recommendations of this report advocate for the diversification of town centres to support town centre living through mixed tenure housing, reusing vacant/derelict sites, and a stronger commitment to the Town Centre First approach and to the Place Principle.

In addition, we note that the planning system has an important role to play in monitoring the performance of high streets and town centres. As part of the evidence report for the local development plan process, local planning authorities have been undertaking town centre assessments and audits to determine how best to support vitality and viability, tackle weaknesses and improve the resilience of town centres. Such assessments provide useful evidence regarding the current condition of and aspirations for Scotland’s high streets and town centres. For example, Highland Council have prepared a Town Centre Health Check, as have Dumfries and Galloway Council. East Renfrewshire Council have also prepared a number of audit reports for each of their town centres.

How do high streets and town centres in rural and remote parts of Scotland differ from those in urban areas, including their composition, the role they play in communities, and the pressures they are facing?

Rural and remote parts of Scotland face their own set of distinct challenges. Many of these challenges were highlighted in an RTPI Scotland 2021 thinkpiece and include:

• Demographic challenges – many rural and remote areas (particularly sparsely populated areas) of Scotland have experienced population decline. This is challenging for high streets in rural and remote areas, which rely on local working age populations for continued business viability.
• Housing challenges – the availability of affordable housing is fundamental for the repopulation of rural communities and to sustain and support rural high streets. The planning system has a key role in supporting the delivery of affordable housing that both reflects the diverse housing and accommodation needs of rural communities and achieves quality placemaking. However, securing high proportions of developer contributions for affordable housing is difficult in some rural areas due to higher construction costs. Furthermore, concentrated patterns of land ownership in rural areas can increase land prices, slow development and reduce the quality of placemaking.
• Transport challenges – opportunities to reduce car use and increase walking, cycling and public transport use are understandably more limited in rural areas compared to urban areas. Whilst car use is likely to remain the primary form of transport in rural Scotland, RTPI Scotland believes there remain opportunities to enhance rural high street and town centre accessibility through active travel infrastructure that better link communities with schools, towns and other service infrastructure, enhancing accessibility and safety.

In November 2025, we launched RTPI Scotland’s Planifesto which recognises the unique challenges rural communities are facing. The Planifesto calls for the championing of flexible approaches by local planning authorities to support innovation in rural areas and to maximise opportunities for allocated and developable land. We also call for a housing delivery body that can have a clear role in delivering housing of all types and at all scales in rural and island communities where they are most needed. In addition, our Planifesto acknowledges the important role of LPPs in delivering positive outcomes for rural and island communities (including high streets and town centres) but also recognises the barriers that some communities face in terms of accessing the resources and skills needed to develop an LPP. We are calling for a dedicated programme to better understand where LPPs are being developed, the challenges that different communities face, and what support can be implemented to achieve an equitable landscape of LPPs across Scotland.

What factors are needed to ensure sustainable access to health, banking, postal, and other services in high streets and town centres?

Sustainable access to amenities, services and facilities is a central component of 20-minute neighbourhood and local living principles – a key policy of NPF4 which can also help to deliver other of NPF4’s policy outcomes. High streets and town centres have a clear role to play in implementing local living and 20-minute neighbourhood objectives. The local living and 20 minute neighbourhood guidance is clear that the quality of amenities, services and facilities is just as important as their quantity. This consideration of quality is essential and extends to the type and variety of services and facilities, as well as to the quality of movement networks that contribute to their accessibility (or not).

The 20-minute neighbourhood guidance adopts the Place Principle as a driving force for the delivery of 20-minute neighbourhoods and encourages use of the Place Standard tool and Place Based Framework for collecting the qualitative data necessary to capture the lived experiences and community expectations of a place. This reflects the Scottish Government’s consistent approach to delivering place-based outcomes, which the RTPI fully supports. 

Embedding these approaches and principles into LPP, LDP and MCA preparation processes will help to bring about a whole place-based approach to the planning and further development of Scotland’s high streets. This approach must also take into consideration the housing, infrastructure, regeneration and investment needs to support Scotland’s high streets and town centres.

How can communities and local authorities respond to vacant properties in their high streets and town centres? Are additional powers and/or resources needed to allow them to do so more effectively?

As previously mentioned, vacant and derelict land has been a challenge for many of Scotland’s high streets, discouraging future investment and leaving negative perceptions upon both residents and visitors – which in turn discourages people from living, working, and visiting in the future.

The Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act came into force in 2024, giving local authorities the power to apply a visitor levy on the purchase of overnight accommodation which can then be used to fund tourist services and facilities. This has the potential to benefit high streets and town centres by injecting the necessary funds to bring vacant and derelict properties back into active use for the benefit of tourists, as well as local residents.

Plan-driven mechanisms, including LPPs, LDPs, and MCAs also have a critical role to play in planning for the reuse, revitalisation and regeneration of vacant and derelict properties to ensure their future positive contribution to Scotland’s high streets and town centres. To realise these aspirations, local authorities need to have sufficient powers to intervene where necessary. In this regard, we note that the Scottish Government has recently consulted on proposals for compulsory purchase reform in Scotland to enhance its power as a tool to bring land back into viable use in the public interest. In our response to this consultation, we recognised the potential for Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO) to be used to help address the housing emergency, noting that they must work with other mechanisms in the planning toolkit to identify, acquire and deliver land for housing purposes. Together with (for example) LPPs, LDPs and MCAs, CPOs have the potential to be used to bring vacant and derelict land back into use for housing and other purposes, to revitalise and regenerate Scotland’s high streets and town centres.

What examples of successful high street and town centre regeneration exist in Scotland and elsewhere, and what can be learned from these examples?

There are a number of examples of successful high street and town centre regeneration projects.

In March 2022, RTPI Scotland responded to the Economy and Fair Work Committee’s inquiry into town centres and retail in which we provided a number of examples of best practice and success stories in the UK of creating resilient town centres, including Stockton-on-Tees urban park, Wokingham Town Centre Regeneration and Aberdeen Union Street Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme.

The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence is an excellent source to find best practice examples of successful projects. For example, Aberdeen’s Union Terrace Gardens recently won Best Project Award at the RTPI Scotland Awards for Planning Excellence in 2024. Fraserburgh Beach Vision and Masterplan is another example, winning Best Plan at the 2024 RTPI Scotland Awards. Further information about these award winning projects can be found in the 2024 Summer issue of Scottish Planner.

More recently, the Edinburgh Futures Institute won RTPI Scotland’s Overall award in 2025 for its innovation in transforming the former Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh building into a tech-enabled, adaptable, state-of-the-art learning facility for the University of Edinburgh. Further information about this project, and the other winning and commended entries in this year’s awards, can be found in the 2025 summer issue of Scottish Planner.

The SURF Awards provide another excellent source for best practice in regeneration projects, including this year’s Creative Regeneration Award winner – LIFT D+G’s creative town centre regeneration project in Lochside.

The Scottish Civic Trust’s My Place Awards offers more examples of best practice. Previous winners include the Atlantic Islands Centre project which contributed to the regeneration of the Luing Island community and the community-led regeneration of former Co-op buildings in Darvel, East Ayrshire into a multi-purpose public space for the community.

There is also much to be learnt from the experience in England, particularly the achievements of the High Street Task Force, which sought to deliver a nationwide capacity and capability-building programme. The now-archived website includes a number of case studies demonstrating the positive work of the Task Force across England’s high streets.

How can the UK and Scottish Governments work with communities and local authorities to maintain and enhance Scotland’s high streets and town centres?

In consultation with our members and stakeholders, the RTPI Scotland Planifesto calls for the Scottish Government to take necessary steps for a prosperous, resilient and equitable Scotland, where everyone has access to safe, well-planned places and a healthy natural environment. Scotland’s high streets and town centres have a key role to play in delivering the thriving and resilient places that Scotland needs to ensure its diverse communities are prosperous and healthy. To achieve this, our Planifesto calls for:

• A fully resourced planning system that is accessible, effective and empowered to deliver the homes, jobs, infrastructure and sustainable communities that Scotland needs. This will be vital to ensure local planning authorities and communities are properly equipped and supported to make the most of existing planning mechanisms, including LDPs, LPPs, MCAs, and CPOs, to ensure the future of Scotland’s high streets and town centres.
• Infrastructure-led development at all scales to ensure that Scotland’s communities have the right infrastructure in the right place at the right time for the people that need them. At the local scale, implementing this ask will be vital to ensure Scotland’s high streets and town centres are vibrant, healthy and sustainable, delivering on the town centre first approach and local living and 20 minute neighbourhood policies of NPF4.
• Diverse and inclusive housing to meet everyone’s needs. High streets and town centres have an important role to play to deliver this objective, creating homes in sustainable locations in line with local living and 20-minute neighbourhood principles.
• Thriving rural and island communities with access to the infrastructure and services they need. Investing in the future of rural high streets and town centres will be crucial to achieve this objective – to maintain and enhance their role as social, cultural and commercial centres of community life.
• Prosperous, healthy and biodiverse communities, driven by an equitable approach to community-led placemaking that inspires, emboldens and empowers. Creating the conditions (including funding and policy conditions) to support community-led regeneration of high streets and town centres will be key to achieving this outcome.

We would welcome the opportunity to expand on the above points and discuss further opportunities to maintain and enhance Scotland’s high streets and town centres.