The Future High Streets Forum has a mission statement to support and champion local high streets, as well as develop new solutions to challenges faced at local level across the country. It is led by an executive board which brings together leaders across retail, property and business to better understand the competition our high streets and town centres across the country face. The Forum will advise the government in the formation and delivery of policies to support high streets and town centres, in the short and longer term.

Elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

"Live to Shop or Shop to Live?" The challenges & changing face of retail in Tomorrow's City As consumers we have all seen the changing faces of retail due to the  explosion of technology and the birth of social media, but how has this  affected bricks and mortar businesses in a virtual shopping environment?  What can be done to ensure all those involved in the retail industry are  meeting the needs and expectations of consumers who have it all in the  digital and physical world? Panel • Belinda Earl Style Director at Marks & Spencer and described by Harold  Tillman (former head of Jaeger and Aquascutum) as the "Queen of retail". • Steve Sunnucks former Global President of Gap Brand at Gap Inc from  November 2012 to December 2014 and also renowned for his repositioning  of New Look during his reign as CEO in the early 2000s. • Laura Vaughan, Professor of Urban Form and Society and Director of Space Syntax Laboratory, Bartlett School of Architecture UCL

Charles Booth’s enquiry into the Life and Labour of the People in London, started in 1884 and completed some twenty-years later, has been the subject of numerous volumes in the social sciences. Indeed, he has been said to have been the first person to use scientific methods to study society. In this talk I will describe how his work has influenced the architectural research field of space syntax and – in particular – how it has shaped my own research into the spatial patterning of poverty and segregation. I will illustrate my talk with many of the numerous maps drawn by Booth and colleagues as well as with contemporary maps that are based on his work. https://www.liv.ac.uk/engage/events/charlesboothlegaciestalk/

This was a talk given to the Urban Design London network meeting in front of an audience of around 70 councillors and planners from London's local boroughs, disseminating findings from the Adaptable Suburbs project that are relevant to town centre policy.

Invited lecture to the Culture, Theory, Space research cluster at the university's department of architecture to an audience of around 40 staff and students. http://www1.plymouth.ac.uk/schools/ade/Research/CTS/Pages/default.aspx "There are some good reasons to believe claims that the high street is dying. Yet, a recently completed study of London’s “adaptable suburbs” shows how its street network has adapted over the past century to support a changing ecology of morphological, social, and economic diversity that has, in turn allowed London’s high streets to weather change. The range of data sources used, from historic business directories, maps and social observations will be used to illustrate some of the key results of the research. The lecture will end with conclusions on the role of the high street in a networked society."

This was an invited talk in front of a panel chaired by Louise Ellman, MP with an audience of policy makers and researchers. The event's aim was to disseminate recent research in the transport domain and to discuss how to bridge between researchers and research users, to ensure that practical research findings are rapidly absorbed into policy making and practice.

The presentation was made to the ‘Cities Policy & Delivery’ unit at the DfT. The seminar aimed to bring together researchers and key stakeholders to discuss and debate the future of the high street: implications for transport policy and planning. The invitees ranged from policy makers at DfT and BIS, to local authorities policy makers or key practitioners from the third sector. The results of a four-year study into the historical evolution of four outer London town centres were presented. The study used space syntax and urban form analysis as well as business directories records and field surveys. The results show that multi-scale street network connectivity as well as built form diversity together contribute to the long-term survival of our high streets.

In response to government plans for a new Garden City at Ebbsfleet, this article for the online paper The Conversation was commissioned. It can be read here: http://theconversation.com/urban-renewal-needs-more-than-garden-city-stamp-to-take-root-25055

How likely is the death knell of the high street to toll? This lecture will describe research using historical, geographical and spatial (space syntax) analysis of suburban centres such as Surbiton in outer London. The results tell us how land use diversity and road connectivity have played a part in the high street’s ability to adapt to significant social and economic change. It can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJEQ2Ta38_o