Welcome to Anywheretown – the home of growth dependence!

Five years ago the town centre of Anywheretown could only be described as run-down. There were boarded-up shop fronts in the high street and charity shops abounded. In the small 1970s shopping mall, the wind whistled through the bleak empty space collecting litter around the benches and the concrete planters. People complained of the lack of shopping opportunities and the need to travel to the nearest city for most of the big multiples like Marks & Spencer or Top Shop. A number of unemployed young people hung around, some drinking. There were some light industry and distribution companies in the estates on the outskirts of the town and a mix of services in the few office blocks by the station and in the myriad small spaces on the floors above shops. However, employment opportunities were tight and did not seem to be growing.

Fast forward a few years and the town seems transformed. Spotting the benefits of the soon-to-be improved rail links into Anycity, a developer bought up some land between the station and the town centre that previously housed a car park, some industrial sheds and a car repair works. This has been redeveloped into a new office complex with direct links to the station but also, through a new thoroughfare, to the town centre. This has shifted the retail centre of the town to the shopping mall, which has been refurbished and partially closed to the weather. The bright, warm interior has now attracted those elusive multiples, with the all-important Marks & Spencer located just where the footfall between the station and the town centre is most intense. The townscape has benefited from considerable landscaping improvements, paid for by the developers. Cafés have moved into the open air section of the old shopping mall and put their tables outside under the new trees. New parking has been provided for the additional shoppers and office workers but also bicycle racks and lighting and distinctive paving for pedestrian routes into the town centre.

This is a success story and it is not the intention of this book to argue that such urban change should be resisted or critiqued wholesale.