It's a knee-jerk reaction to the decline of our high streets – blame the local authority.

After all, they're the ones who own the land and give the blessing for stores to come and go, right?

Well, actually no.

Not only do very few local authorities own the buildings and land upon which our high streets and town centres are built (and if they do it tends to be just small pockets rather than the entire thing), but their ability to dictate which traders occupy which store is out of their control too.

The reality is that our traditional retail hubs comprise of a patchwork quilt of different property owners, all of which are looking for a return on their investment.

"I've been blamed for so many things over the years," says Phil Coyne, currently interim Local Plan director at Maidstone Borough Council and a highly experienced figure within local authorities for the last 20 years.

"I remember when, in the middle of a recession, owners of town centre properties refused to reduce rents and tenants left and suddenly it was the council's fault.

"When I worked in Birmingham years ago, I was once blamed in a public meeting for allowing the petrol stations to close."

All of which is one of the key reasons there is an often over-looked issue facing our high streets – that of a fragmented ownership model which sees everyone from faceless investment corporations to, in Canterbury's case, religious organisations (the cathedral owns more than 60 properties around its perimeter) owning the buildings which make up our town and city centres.

The local authority certainly has a significant role to play – it is, after all, responsible for some of the key infrastructure upon which our town centres so heavily rely – but aside from splashing out from the public purse to acquire sites, its powers are restricted.

One of the biggest challenges facing town centres now, as they look to formulate plans to create a blueprint to rebound from the challenges of recent years, is just how to unite everyone to pull together in the same direction.

"You can't curate a town centre unless you have some control over the real estate," explains Graham Galpin. of the High Street Task Force. "And there are two ways you do that – either you buy it or you get to know the landlords really well."

Which is fine, assuming, of course, they are all prepared to engage.

"The problem is the people we don't know, like the off-shore pension funds," explains Lisa Carlson, CEO of the Canterbury Business Improvement District and chair of the Association of Town and City Management.

"The ones we do know just need to be invited into the conversation. Unity is going to be key in lots of different ways."

Certainly, some authorities have taken the plunge and put their money where their mouth is. Ashford Borough Council's successful transformation of Park Mall is often held up as a case study, while Canterbury City Council invested £75million to buy Whitefriars and Medway Council has acquired the Pentagon Centre in Chatham.

But it's a risky business and not one all authorities can afford to do. After all, this is public money they're playing with and they're investing it at a time of extraordinary uncertainty about how our town centres will evolve.

Yet local authorities know that a town centre with a compelling offering is essential to their long-term financial health. And they are perfectly placed to pull on the various strands that are needed as our high streets look to create a new compelling argument as to why we should be spending time in them.

Sunny Ee is Medway Council’s assistant director of regeneration. He is only too aware that town centre growth is not just about getting empty shop fronts filled – it's a more holistic approach.

He explains: “By acquiring buildings in our town centres, such as the Pentagon Shopping Centre and Mountbatten House [an office block] in Chatham, the council is able to help shape the future of the area.

"These acquisitions, alongside our own housing company’s Waterfront and Garrison Point developments help provide more opportunities for the town centre. We are continuing to focus our efforts on bringing people back to our town centres.

"Chatham is our emerging city centre and we are providing new economic opportunities through mixed-use developments – we are building new homes to increase footfall and making improvements to spaces people can visit and enjoy.

“We have town centre forums in place, which meet regularly and helps us maintain good relationships with local business owners."

Maidstone Borough Council's Phil Coyne added: "One of the things we have to do is be more interventionalist and much braver and more imaginative with how we work with owners and investors. These things only work if they make economic sense, so there has to be the business model there."

To that end, the council has recently embarked upon a town centre strategy – designed to provide the template for the County Town's future prosperity. It will, Coyne admits, be a long journey, but one they know needs to start happening today and evolve in the face of changing market conditions.

It envisions a town centre with an increased flexible working space offering, ushering in well-paid workers, and giving them the option to live in the town centre through high-quality housing provision. Retail, it says, will deliver the much-discussed 'experience' for shoppers – a blend of independent traders, culture and entertainment. All of which should allow visitors a clear route through the town's different offerings. It's bold but it's exactly the combination of issues which are at the very heart of the issues high streets face.

He explained: "As we start to look at the things to form the jigsaw we want to put together, there's a big role to working imaginatively and hands-on with owners, and investors and people who want to come in.

"If you're approaching an employer or something you want to bring into the town, if you're approaching as a partnership – as a council and with owners and funders – you have the ability then to make these things happen.

"If you bring in the higher added-value jobs and you're increasing the disposable income with a diverse high-quality housing offer then you're making sure when the community in Maidstone want a day out or evening out, we have all the things in the town centre they want – be that restaurants, the pubs, the culture.

"And a big part of this is not just about talking to the people who do use the town centre, but those that don't and establish why."

That could prove the biggest challenge of all.

Because, ultimately, it is we as consumers who have chosen to abandon the high street. The stores which have shut up shop did not do so because they alone over-expanded or invested unwisely. They chased our pound coins but we opted to spend them elsewhere. We headed to out-of-town developments or online, or to the big supermarkets.

Where once we flocked, now we tend to avoid.

It is that mindset which needs changing through creative thought.

For local authorities, property and land owners, the only way to ensure everyone can fill all the vacant plots, to see the high street busy and bustling again with people of all ages, is to ensure they work together.