PORTAS: POTENTIAL AND PITFALLS ‘The days of a high street populated simply by independent butchers, bakers and candlestick makers are, except in the most exceptional circumstances, over.’ (Mary Portas, December 2011) 1 One will find very few candlestick makers in our high streets these days. Independent butchers and bakers are still there in numbers, but there are nowhere near as many as there once were. There are now fewer than 10,000 butchers’ shops, a quarter of the number there were 50 years ago, and only 8,000 bakeries, down from 25,000 in 1950. 2 The viability of independent local shops is an important indicator of what is happening on the High Street. It has been seized on by the new economics foundation, whose ‘Clone town Britain’ report focused attention on the homogenisation of the UK’s town centres. 3 It is the stuff of newspaper campaigns and headlines, most recently in Totnes, Devon, where local residents were furious at the arrival of Costa Coffee in a town noted for its independent retailers. 4 112 Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal Vol. 6, 2, 112–121  Henry Stewart Publications 1752-9638 (2012–2013) High Street regeneration and rebranding Pushing Portas further: Life beyond the butcher, baker and candlestick maker Received: 26th September, 2012 Julian Dobson is a writer, speaker and commentator on regeneration, placemaking, civil society and social policy. He is director of Urban Pollinators (www.urbanpollinators.co.uk), which works with organisations on creative solutions to the problems of place. Julian was co-founder and editorial director of New Start, the magazine for regeneration practitioners, and previously edited Inside Housing magazine. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a board member of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies. Abstract A healthy independent retail sector, important as it is, will never be enough to revive the UK’s town centres. As the Portas Review indicated, a wide-ranging rethinking of the High Street is required. Putting such rethinking into practice will be a challenge. The immediate aftermath of the Portas Review has highlighted the pitfalls as well as the potential in current approaches. This paper asks whether the Portas Review and subsequent events have prepared the ground for real progress towards a new kind of high street. Drawing on a survey of practitioners and activists, it highlights the need for a common understanding of the challenges town centres face, and better approaches to project planning and sharing learning. Keywords: High streets, town centres, theories of change, retail, social spaces, peer learning Julian Dobson Director, Urban Pollinators Ltd, 3 Silver Birch Avenue, Sheffield S10 3TA, UK. e-mail: julian@urban pollinators.co.uk