Harlow’s conservative council has plans to revitalise the town centre, and isn’t afraid of spending large amounts of money on property to make this happen.

The town centre faces all the challenges of every town centre, with the move of shoppers to out-of-town malls or online shopping.  Plus some more, caused by the poor condition of many of the buildings in the town centre, which were built when the New Town was first being established.

On 9 May 2025 the council announced it was buying Market House, next to the market place.  This is part of a long term plan to  see the square “transformed into a hub of leisure and hospitality, with bars, restaurants, outdoor dining, a street trading market space and a reinvigorated public square. ”   It’s an ambitious plan, and will do a lot of good for Harlow if it succeeds. That’s a big if.  It will take more than a change of ownership to persuade businesses to move back into the town centre.  There’s no clear reason to make the council better at this than the previous commercial landlords.

On 6 June 2025 the council announced an even bigger purchase, Terminus House.  This is a 13 storey building built as offices then used as accommodation, which also has a 6 storey car park.  It’s cheap so was often used by London boroughs to meet their housing obligations.  Harlow Council plan to relocate the current residents then redevelop the building s good quality accommodation for Harlow residents. On 19 August 2025, contracts were exchanged.