'Get shops back into Preston and give us more to do': politicians respond to public demands over city centre
Politicians were put on the spot over their visions for Preston city centre during a public debate.
Preston’s political leaders have faced calls to revitalise the city centre and attract more shops onto the high street.
In spite of a raft of recent developments, the message to a panel of politicians answering public questions ahead of next week’s local elections for Preston City Council was that more needed to be done.
The leaders of the five political groups that are contesting every available seat at the polls on 7th May gathered at the Cotton Court Business Centre for a hustings event, co-hosted by the Lancashire Post, Local Democracy Reporting Service, Blog Preston and Lancashire Lead.
Audience member David Cox asked what their “single top priority” would be to give the heart of the city a boost.
He acknowledged that the £46m Animate cinema and leisure development and other projects were “bringing things forward”, but contrasted 2026 with the “enormous amount of optimism” he says there was when Preston was granted city status 24 years ago.
“There’s…a lot of closures – [and] businesses in the city centre are really struggling to make things work. How’s that going to get better?” asked Mr. Cox, founder of Preston-based David Cox Architects.
The five-strong panel was also quizzed – in a follow-up question submitted via social media – about how they would tackle the number of empty shops in the city. In her poser, Tezz Wolfi simply demanded, “Get the shops back into town.”
Here’s a flavour of how each of the panelists responded (in the order they spoke):
HARRY LANDLESS, Conservative group leader, Preston City Council
[On revitalising the city centre]
“I think that one of the top priorities for the city centre is to make it a safe place and a pleasant place to visit. We’ve invested in Animate and other such projects, the Harris Museum and a few other things. But the main thing is, you’ve got to make the place attractive [and] safe to come and visit.
“Say, for example, you’re on Fishergate and you feel threatened in the early evening, you’re going to be put off and not come again. So we’ve got to look at increasing how we make the place safer – whether it’s use of CCTV, more police presence and things like that.”
[On empty shops]
“Retail has changed, retail is a frightening business to be in now in term so running a shop and trying to make it pay. We’ve seen so many big retail groups, not just small…go bust because habits have changed. That’s not anything to do with policy, that’s a lot to do with technology – we all use Amazon and depend on it.
“You don’t just have to go into Preston city centre. You go to Deepdale Retail Park, and there’s…big stores struggling, changing hands. We can’t wave a magic wand to attract people to go [and help] maintain retailers. Preston city center needs to change – it needs to not just depend on the retail offering, it’s got to offer other things to make people come in and use the city.”
MATTHEW BROWN, Labour ruling group leader, Preston City Council
[On revitalising the city centre]
“We want to see regeneration of the city centre, but we want regeneration that works for local people [and] local businesses. There is a lot of negativity, but if you look at what the Labour council has done, we’ve invested £120m: building a new cinema, providing money for a youth zone, refurbishing Amounderness House and improving the Harris Museum and Art Gallery.
“We want to see investment that actually delivers for our communities as well – this is is why we are looking at things like establishing a vehicle across the public sector to acquire a lot of these problem buildings that we have [and] why we’re supporting 700 new social homes in Stoneygate with Onward [Homes]. We want to continue that, and obviously we do think our banking system isn’t working for people…and that is why we’re looking at new things like establishing a community bank, which will benefit local people [and] businesses.”
[On empty shops]
“It’s very frustrating and in austerity – which really hit the council – our budget was cut by a third…nd that was a political choice of some of the parties here. [But] I think we have done more than people think. If you look at the…arts and culture portfolio, we’re doing amazing work around having more events in the city centre. I think we need to have more power [and] resources and eventually set up a company to actually compulsory purchase a lot of these shops, because often it’s the behaviour in the private sector which is a problem. We put £200,000 in our budget to allow local artists to form co-operatives and fill empty units, which…is a very creative thing to do.”
JOHN POTTER, Liberal Democrat main opposition group leader, Preston City Council
[On revitalising the city centre]
“Lots of towns and city centres are struggling, because the age of retail has changed in terms of people go[ing] online [and to] out of town shopping centres. So the places that now thrive going forward have a different USP [unique selling point] than just retail. And the big centrepiece of this city that is currently sat empty is the Guild Hall
“If we want our city centre to grow and build, we have to offer something other than shopping, other than a night-time economy – we have to offer an evening economy or a late afternoon economy. We said years ago that actually you need now a study into what comes next, because we can’t just let [the Guild Hall] sit there, [as] a cultural black hole in the middle of our city. Culture and the arts are going to be so important if we’re going to grow our city and then…retail and hospitality can grow from that.”
[On empty shops]
“There are some wonderful independent retailers that are in our city centre [and I] applaud them for what they do, but you can’t deny the fact the amount of boarded up shops, as you come up from Ringway…to the Flag Market, is pretty depressing. But a big part of that [is] outside of our control. Yes, we do want shops to be able to survive in the city centre, but they are absolutely governed by the landlord[s]… that price them out. If the council was to…lower business rates, we would have to cover the entire cost…and offset it, so it’s practically not possible. I’d love to get more shops in our city centre, but it’s very difficult when the odds are so stacked against these retailers.”
STEPHEN THOMPSON, Reform UK councillor, Preston City Council
[On revitalising the city centre]
“One of the things that I’ve noticed going out at night is [that] it’s very different to the way it was 20 years ago. It doesn’t feel very safe – and I think one of the things that we need to do is step up safety in the city. I was talking to someone the other day, a young lady [who] somebody had dropped some drugs in her drink. That sort of thing goes on in Preston and it shouldn’t really be going on anywhere.
“So we need to have a safer city…[and also] the government needs to reduce business rates. Reform do have a campaign to keep pubs open as well – there used to be absolutely loads of them in the [city] centre, and it used to feed into the night-time economy and the daytime economy, but they’re dying on their feet.”
[On empty shops]
“I can definitely reflect back on a few years ago – and it was better than it is now, but I don’t think that is a particularly Preston story, I think that’s a national story. And I think we do need to get private money into the town, for them to invest… with shops, flats and all the rest of it. The council has put a lot of money into things and some of it has been really good – the Harris [refurbishment], I absolutely take my hat off [to]. But there’s other things…that it’s just wasting money – the £200k for artists…what money do they put back into Preston?”
AVERY GREATOREX, Preston Green Party chair
[On revitalising the city centre]
“I cannot afford to go out every week, every day, to a cinema, to a shop. We can’t afford this in a cost-of- living crisis, I will give this council some credit, in the fact that projects like [Animate] do breathe some life into a city and do make things exciting. But we need people to have a reason to exist in our city that isn’t just to spend money…we can’t afford to keep our city economy going – we need other avenues for people to be here [and to] socialise.
“If you look at cities all across the UK, there are plenty of places for people to gather – and I just don’t think Preston’s doing that to its best capacity right now. I believe we can do so much more to prioritise these social spaces [for] people to exist together…and that also builds community, which is something which I think makes us all so much stronger.”
[On empty shops]
“For my generation, we are used to seeing this. We’ve never known any different. We’ve not known ambition, we’ve not known a city that is willing to build or invest in these public spaces. I was born in 2004 – I was six when the Conservatives came into power and destroyed everything. I moved [to Preston] in 2022 and the development I have seen in the city, to give it some credit, is incredible. But if you walk 10 minutes out of the city centre, you just see the same old decline. Preston is only seeing a development in its very centre, but the people who make up our city don’t all live in the centre.”