Professor Thiemo Fetzer responds to the Government’s “Pride in Place” agenda

The government's new "Pride in Place" programme - empowering communities to buy up boarded shops, reclaim derelict pubs, and restore local pride - aligns closely with new research into the roots of local decline, populism, and structural transformation.

Dr Thiemo Fetzer, Professor of Economics, highlights how the decline of high streets is more than just an economic shift-it is a visible transformation with profound social and political consequences.

Responding to the announcement, Professor Thiemo Fetzer said, "A lot of what we might consider to be local decline, in particular in the retail sector, away from brick-and-mortar shops towards remote consumption creates winners and losers. For many people going shopping involved going to a cafe and involved social consumption. These opportunities disappeared because the big shift to online commerce has killed or destroyed a lot of this high street ecosystem.

"People see shops are closing up and they feel like everything is going down. The High Street was a type of meeting place where older people in particular could chat and meet. If that has disappeared, it's gone, when, in fact, it's just capturing, to a certain degree, a changing economy. That is vital to the populist backlash - the narrative that sits quite hard.

"Central government has to work with local stakeholders because they're on the ground. They see how local change works and every local context requires a different solution.

"The Pride in Place programme offers a rare chance to combine community empowerment with structural adaptation - revitalising high streets, restoring social consumption spaces, and rebuilding the foundations of pride, resilience, and democratic trust."

ENDS

Notes to Editors

• Professor Thiemo Fetzer is available for interview, please contact Dom Barker, [email protected] or call 07824 540727 to arrange.

25 September 2025