Wallsend visit highlights the importance of place leadership
The Institute of Place Management recently visited Wallsend town centre in North Tyneside to explore first-hand the collaborative work being undertaken to support high street transformation and long-term place management.
The visit, led by IPM Head Ian Harvey alongside Rachel Nickeas, brought together colleagues from North Tyneside Council, including Wayne Young, Paul Graves and Fay Hodgson, as well as local businesses and partners working across the town centre.
Wallsend is emerging as one of the UK’s most interesting examples of how smaller and medium-sized towns are responding to the complex challenges facing high streets. Central to this is a strong culture of partnership working, bringing together the local authority, businesses and wider stakeholders to take a coordinated and proactive approach to place management.
This collaborative approach has been recognised nationally, with Wallsend named as a winner in the Visa Let’s Celebrate Towns Awards 2025. The awards celebrate towns that demonstrate resilience, innovation and strong local leadership, highlighting places where businesses and communities are working together to support thriving local economies.
A key focus of the visit was understanding how Wallsend is developing the capacity, skills and leadership required to manage change in the long term. Like many towns across the UK, Wallsend does not have the same density of commercial activity as larger city centres, meaning traditional funding models such as Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are not always viable at scale.
This reflects a wider national challenge: how to ensure all places-regardless of size-have access to the capacity and capability needed to manage their high streets effectively.
Insights from Wallsend are directly relevant to the development of the Government’s emerging High Street Strategy. There is a growing recognition across the sector that while high streets are inherently local, they require sustained leadership, coordination and partnership working to succeed.
Wallsend demonstrates that, with the right local relationships and a shared sense of purpose, towns can build effective place management models tailored to their context.
A place to watch
IPM will continue to work with partners in Wallsend and across North Tyneside to capture and share learning that can inform policy and practice nationally.
As the high street agenda evolves, places like Wallsend provide valuable insight into what works in practice-particularly in locations where innovation is driven not by scale, but by collaboration and commitment.
About the author
Formed in 2006, the Institute of Place Management is the international professional body that supports people committed to developing, managing and making places better.