Focal points in the community

What this means 

There are a huge number of unused spaces in communities – for example, there are shuttered shops in high streets where pop-up services could locate. It’s important when thinking about communities to get creative when considering what people want to do, where they might want to do it, and how they might access these spaces.

Can you talk about the potential of getting creative with unused spaces in the community?

Here Bob Jones talks about the potential:

The research 

The Office for National Statistics (2018) identified that a large percentage of people who reported feeling lonely lived in the most deprived areas of the UK. This suggests that poverty is an associated risk factor for experiencing loneliness, which is consistent with other research literature (Eckhard, 2018). Loneliness can feel stigmatising – with men feeling more stigma from being perceived as lonely by their community, while women were more likely to feel self-stigma, that is personal shame for being lonely (Barreto et al., 2022).

Kharicha et al. (2017) found that stigma is particularly an issue when attending social groups with no specific activity (such as lunch clubs or coffee mornings), which were widely perceived as being for ‘lonely old people’ - and most people did not want to go. Instead, accessible groups that had a common interest and a purpose for meeting were far more popular.

It may follow that local high streets – which are already mixed-use spaces for shopping, meeting, and exercise – can reduce the stigma associated with interventions for loneliness. The Doncaster Talking ‘Shop’ was founded on these principles – that people could access the support as part of their regular walks down the local high street (NHS England, n.d.). This may be particularly important as an approach in deprived areas, not only because of higher rates of loneliness and mental health need, but because deprived high streets are currently more likely to be ‘unhealthy’ – with high concentrations of payday lenders, bookmakers, and fast-food outlets (Royal Society of Public Health, 2018). The contrast between ease of access to ‘unhealthy’ spaces compared to difficult access to supportive ones is therefore likely to be stark. 

While funding remains a key issue, local authorities do have powers to tackle empty spaces on their high streets. These include ‘hard powers’ related to planning, asset management, grants and town centre frameworks, and ‘soft powers’ of civic leadership and communication (Local Government Association, 2020). 

What you can do 

If you are a senior leader: The Royal Society of Public Health, in their report Health on the High Street, made several recommendations for senior leaders in local authorities. These recommendations, adapted below, align with the discussions in the Communities Where Everyone Belongs group – about seeing the potential in currently unused spaces: 

• Make records of empty commercial properties easily available. 
• Encourage the development of, or directly provide, ‘third places’ in towns and cities - places where people can meet and/or access essential services. 
• Consider different business rates, with relief or exemption for those that promote health and wellbeing. 

Further information 

Watch

The Doncaster Talking Shop discusses how high street access to therapy allows people to get mental health support without stigma. 

Read

The Local Government Association has produced a guide, Dealing with empty shops: A Good Practice Guide that includes several practice examples related to supporting new wellbeing initiatives in a local high street. 

Explore and connect 

Several areas have experimented with pop-up locations to address loneliness. These include Sevenoaks, Saffron Waldon and Solihull.