We are all aware that the complexity of and dynamics within a town centre means that it is not possible to gain a complete understanding of performance by examining only a single indicator.

Indeed, it has long been recognised by both government and commerce that there are a wide range of indicators that need to be evaluated.

As long ago as the early 1990's Central Government published recommended Indicators of Vitality and Viability which encompassed such factors as pedestrian flows, rental levels, retail demand and employment.

Since then, however, the difficulty for towns and cities has been the ability to gather, analyse and present the full range of these data in an efficient, comprehensive and robust way. It is either prohibitively expensive or has proven to be a lengthy and complex process and, in any event, a lack of consistency nationally has inhibited effective benchmarking.

Milestone will change this - for the first time, towns and cities are able to measure and benchmark their performance in a comprehensive and consistent way, and at a the fraction of the cost.

Key facts about Milestone are that:

• It is an online service encompassing data on the performance of over 4,500 towns and cities across the UK
• It comprises over 90 lines of data in five key areas - employment, property values, consumer demand, town centre provision and town centre quality - tracking annual trends from 2000
• Data on all or any of these can be selected and extracted to compile bespoke reports that meet a town's particular reporting requirements
• A town can benchmark its performance against other towns and cities nationally, and so identify the extent to which it is over or under performing
• A town can understand its position within its regional network and within the national hierarchy and how this might be affected by change, eg. new development, a loss of a key employer

Access to Milestone is via an annual subscription from just £1,500. For more information please visit www.milestoneuk.org or contact Diane Wehrle at diane.wehrle@spring-board.info.