The Towns Fund has introduced the prospect of a huge and welcome allocation of new funding for towns but the three core programmes at its heart, urban regeneration, skills and connectivity have very little direct link to retail and will require some innovative thinking if they are to support it.

My gut reaction is that I fear in 2021 we will be having the same discussion about the slow death of town based retail as we are today on the cusp of 2020! This story tells us:

UK high streets have shed more than 140,000 jobs this year as store closures and retail failures made 2019 one of the most challenging years in a generation.

More than 2,750 jobs were lost every week, according to a detailed analysis by the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) published today. It predicts the picture will worsen in 2020, unless the government intervenes, with high business rates one of the factors blamed for accelerating chain store closures.

Prof Joshua Bamfield, the CRR’s director, said retail was in crisis owing to high costs, low levels of profitability and sales moving online.

“These problems are felt by most businesses operating from physical stores in high streets or shopping malls,” Bamfield said. “The low growth in consumer spending since 2015 has meant that the growth in online sales has come at the expense of the high street.”

Palatka, a city of 10,400 swaddled by potato farms and a paper mill that employs a small fraction of the workers it once did, is desperate for an economy to call its own. Abandoned by retailers that have moved out of their city, and disappointed that President Trump hasn’t yet delivered on his promise to restore economic opportunity to small communities, the people here say they don’t have much choice.

The alternative would be to allow their beloved home to become the next example of a dying American small town. To help save it, some have started homegrown carwashes and small restaurants and bars selling craft beers. Others have worked with developers to build apartments downtown. And officials here are striving to turn the riverfront, a resource that is unique to their city, into a future hub for tourism and a draw for retirees.

“We have to tap into our locals, our entrepreneurial spirit and our aspirations to substitute what is happening around us,” said Hill, 44, who grew up here, left to get degrees from Howard University and the University of Florida, and returned to open a law practice.

In some ways, the strategy of self-reliance is a return to the city’s past. For decades, Palatka’s leaders and residents had embraced their bubble. Politicians rejected plans over the years to build highways that would have connected Palatka to Interstates 75 and 95, spurring growth. Back then, they were afraid growth might change things too much. From the city’s founding, residents relied on the river to attract thousands of jobs. It once brought in a furniture manufacturing plant and a paper mill.

Over the past two decades, however, the small city has been forced to contend with the realities of the global economy. The furniture manufacturer closed in 2003; and automation and competition led to jobs at the paper mill being slashed by a third, to 850, over the past 12 years. By 2013, local leaders were horrified to learn that an expert hired by the Florida League of Cities had found that Palatka was the state’s only “dying city.”

Hill figured the city would need that kind of moxie, just on a larger scale. Everyone had to hustle. When Suggs heard that the owner of Bass Pro Shops was coming to town for a bass tournament this year, he and the mayor traveled to the private airport to try to persuade him to build a store in Palatka.

There have been a few good signs. The paper mill announced in June that it was adding a new processor to the factory, bringing 80 more jobs to the community. Georgia-Pacific was also working with the local school board to train high school students to prepare them for the manufacturing jobs of today.

“We have confidence that Palatka and the surrounding area can support the kind of skilled employees we need now, but more importantly, in the future,” said Karen Cole, a company spokeswoman.