Geographical study on the retail regeneration of town centres in the UK

自20世纪90年代以来，英国的中央和地方政府旨在鼓励传统中心的再生，英国的零售区域政策的特点是限制位于非中心的大型零售设施，并维护和加强现有的购物区。本研究项目旨在探讨购物区的最新发展趋势及购物区的更新项目。本研究的结果如下：(i)随着许多新的零售业态如超市的发展，许多购物区面临着“螺旋式下降”，这些新业态经常对传统的零售等级产生不利影响。其中，与城镇或城市中心相比，地区中心以下的小型购物中心受到严重破坏。（ii）城镇或城市中心的再生计划在英国城市中更为广泛，许多城镇中心都有自己的再生计划和城镇中心管理机构。城镇中心更新项目的效果各不相同，但近年来许多城镇中心总体上都取得了不错的成绩。另一方面，较小中心的重建集中在面临粮食短缺问题的购物区，并在“邻里重建项目”下进行。再生策略主要分为购物区的翻新和新购物区的重建。（四）随着城镇或市中心更新项目的推进，区域零售结构的新问题不断显现。最大的问题之一是对小型购物区的负面影响。

Since 1990's, central and local government in the UK has aimed to encourage the regeneration of traditional centres and regional policy on retailing in the UK is characterized that large retail facilities located in offcentres are restricted and existing shopping districts are maintained and reinforced. This research project seeks to examine the recent trends on shopping districts and the regeneration projects of shopping districts.The results of this research are as followings :(i)As many new retail formats like superstores which have often impacted adversely on traditional retail hierarchy has been developed, many shopping districts has faced 'a spiral of decline'. Among them smaller shopping centres below district centres has been seriously damaged in comparison with town or city centres.(ii)Regeneration plan of town or city centres are wider established in the UK cities and many town centres have own regeneration plan and town centre management institutes. The effect of town centre regeneration projects are varied among town centres, but in recent years many town centres have generally got good performances.(iii)On the other hand, regeneration of smaller centres focus on shopping districts where is faced with food desert problems and is carrying out under 'neighborhood regeneration projects'. The strategies of regeneration are mainly divided into refurbishment of shopping districts and rebuilding new shopping districts.(iv)As the regeneration projects of town or city centres have made progress, new problems on regional retail structure have been coming out. One of the biggest problems lies in the negative impact on smaller shopping districts.