Introduction

The National Planning Policy Framework states that local planning authorities should support the role that town centres play at the heart of local communities, by taking a positive approach to their growth, management and adaptation.

As part of this management role, we monitor the health of our town and local centres on an annual basis to ensure we have an up-to-date understanding of how our town and local centres are performing and to inform our planning decisions. In doing so, we look at indicators such as the diversity of uses, the proportion of vacant buildings and environmental quality.

You can view the latest town and local centre health check information from May 2023 below. It includes an analysis of how the key indicators have changed over the years since 2020 when the previous health checks were first undertaken