Action for Market Towns Chief Executive, Chris Wade, gave this speech at a reception at the House of Commons hosted by Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly.

Thank you Jonathan for hosting this reception and for that introduction that so clearly explained the challenges faced by small towns, their collective importance and the very relevant government policy agendas.

I know the Award-winning initiatives that you talked about in St Ives and Huntingdon very well – not only as a judge on the Awards but also because I live in a Cambridgeshire village that is served by both towns.

Issues and Self-Reliance

All of you will have first-hand knowledge of both the attractions of living and working in small towns and the issues that they face from struggling town centres, patchy broadband and mobile networks, centralisation of services as population gets older and affordability of housing caused by high house prices combined with relatively low wages.

You will also know that there is a long tradition of self-reliance and enterprise in our isolated small towns with often effective leadership shown by town councils, community partnerships and business associations. These local groups know the issues and opportunities faced by the towns and can be very effective with strategic support from local authorities.

A Coming Together for Collective Voice and Understanding

Action for market Towns was formed to help towns face issues in a new Millennium and came from a coming together of a number of enterprising communities across the country who recognised that collectively their voice and understanding would be greater. They also realised that the best people to learn from were groups and businesses in other small towns that faced the same issues and opportunities.

That is what AMT has been doing for the last 15 years. I often say – and I think it is true – that there isn’t an issue out there faced by a town that another town has not already had some success in tackling.

AMT works across the whole of Britain though, the bulk of our 400 member towns are in England – with an even spread from North to South and members in traditional market towns, former industrial towns and coastal towns.

Embracing Current Policy Agenda

We have embraced the Government’s Localism agenda as a policy that is in tune with the sense of community and need for joined-up thinking in our small towns. Our guide to good practice in Community-Led and Neighbourhood Planning showed how in many ways rural towns and local authorities had been leading the way in this for years – something the Minister Greg Clark recognised in his forword to the guide.

Similarly, we have fed in to the Mary Portas High Street Review our experiences in working with towns across the country – something you can see summarised in the guide to 21st Century Town Centres included in your packs. Initiatives like ‘Town Teams’ heralded by Government announcement at the weekend, are already tried and tested in our small towns.

Through our support for the launch of the ‘Small Towns for Tomorrow’ Policy Forum we are also helping to understand future trends to help inform policy developments.

Sharing Practical Solutions

After a busy year of contributing positively to policy development, we look forward to sharing good practice and supporting towns to make the most of the policy agenda. We are doing this by supporting towns teams; neighbourhood planning, measuring economic performance and helping towns see themselves as ‘department stores’ that offer something more that the bland shopping experience of out-of-town shopping malls. We are even investing in developing an imaginative town-wide loyalty card that can attract new customers and capture a percentage of spend to re-invest in improving and promoting town centres.

Market Town Awards: Sharing and Celebrating Good Practice

One of the best part of the job, is each year running the National market Towns Awards – which capture and celebrate all the great work going on in our towns. We have a bank of 300 case studies as a result – the first place to look for practical solutions to town issues. There will be a photo opportunity to formally launch the Awards this year and we invite you to join us. We also hope you will nudge those good projects in your towns to enter.

A Continuing Dialogue around Unique Perspective

I hope that you have found this afternoon informative. With so many policy and practice opportunities being led by Government and your in-depth knowledge of communities in your own constituencies, we just thought it was more important than ever to engage with yourselves and fellow MPs from your unique perspectives. We hope you will have learnt more about what we offer and how we can help with practical help in towns and give insights to issues faced across our 400 members. We hope that this will be good for you and that also you will welcome us keeping you abreast of issues and their relevance to emerging policy. This can vary from just keeping on our mailing list to one-to-one meetings on local and national issues.

I will leave you all to continue your individual conversations with my colleagues and Board members. Of course we are living and working in challenging times but there is a policy agenda and wealth of good practice that we can all grasp and show leadership to help respond to these challenges.

Chris wade

Chief Executive

Action for Market Towns