When I began writing this book, the ‘high street’ was high on the political agenda in the UK. Politicians and pundits queued up for slots on prime-time TV to pronounce on the future of our town and city centres. Each had their particular bugbear: business taxes, planning rules, parking.

From the start I was clear that something different needed to be said. We have had enough experts from the retail and property trades offering shrivelled visions of the future, in which nothing shakes the interests and institutions that currently dominate our communities. Nobody needs a book explaining how broken systems can be preserved.

If we are serious about creating places for people, we need to delve below the minor crises of particular retailers or high streets and ask how town and city centres currently function, why they fail and who benefits from their successes and failures. In doing so we discover that the free market is anything but free, and competition is anything but fair. An agenda to save our town centres must involve addressing inequities and articulating a broader vision for the places at the heart of our communities.

This book is an attempt to set out such a vision for the long term, building on what is already being achieved in the UK and around the world. The perspective is primarily from the UK, but the issues it grapples with will be pertinent to readers worldwide. It looks at town centres as places of trade and commerce; places of leisure and sociability; places to live in and enjoy. It explores how the failing ‘me towns’ of the early 21st century can become ‘we towns’ where all share in a flourishing society.

I hope this vision will remain relevant and helpful for years to come. For that reason I have avoided including long sections on some of the issues of the moment, such as the intricacies of UK planning law or the opportunities that may or may not be offered by particular technologies. They are important questions, but will soon be overtaken by events and politics. Even when referring to particular examples and incidents I have tried to keep an eye on the long-term value of the illustrations I have used.