A team of retail and leisure experts has launched a new company called EVOLVE Partners to help rescue town centres including IoL Director and Chair of the West Midlands Institute of Licensing Sarah Clover.

The company, which launched on 15th June, is made up of a team of retail and leisure experts will work with property owners, occupiers and local authorities to devise strategic plans to revitalise high streets.

According to its website the company, EVOLVE Partners, will put forward four-step plans to create partnerships, analyse the market position of a high street, then deliver a transformation strategy and a financial vehicle to drive the projects forward.

Director Paul Barnes said the business intended to work with authorities to ensure the relevant CIL and S106 funding was used to enhance the town centres.

He said: “Town centres will survive but they need to deliver a different set of offers to become the hub their local people want,” said Barnes, who also chairs the Association of International Retail. “They need to understand what visitors want and how they must change.

“Retail has become the dominant use of a town centre but hasn’t always been so,” Barnes added. “Town centres have to shrink as retailers move online; it just means they’ve got to change.”