Back in late 2018 the Chancellor announced a £675 million fund as part of the UK Budget, with the plan to help transform town centres up and down the country.

The decline of Britain’s high streets and more broadly, town and city centres, has been a permanent fixture in the headlines over the past few years, with a rising number of businesses falling victim to a perfect storm of high comparable business rates, wage inflation and rapid changes in consumer trends.

In several cases this has left a number of vacant or under used spaces and, as the Future High Street Funds Prospectus states: ‘there is currently a mismatch between the supply of existing space and the demand for different types of space within town centres’.

Consequently, the Government launched the Future High Street Fund, which has been set up to invest in improvements to town centre infrastructure, help to increase access to high streets, reduce congestion, support redevelopment around high streets and enable new housing and workspaces to be created.

Additionally, £55 million from the Fund has been allocated to support the regeneration of ‘heritage high streets’, in order to restore historic high street properties. What’s more the money is totally free for those lucky enough to receive it.

So who can get their hands on the cash?

Ultimately it is anybody’s game. No two high streets are the same so all local authorities facing these kind of significant challenges have been invited to submit an expression of interest in order to put forward their vision of how they see the money helping their high streets. This will include defining specific challenges they face, alongside their ambitions for what they believe their town centre can become given the opportunity.

How will the Fund work?

The process will take place over two rounds. Phase one is the aforementioned expression of interest, which will see entries submitted by the 22 March deadline. These will then be judged by a Government panel led by the Rt Hon James Brokenshire, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and Jake Berry, Minister for the Northern Powerhouse and Local Growth. The shortlist is then due to be announced in summer 2019.

Phase two will then see those shortlisted create full business cases, with funding to help support the development of their high street strategies. There are also plans to assemble a High Street Task Force, which once established should help to provide vital support during this process.

This is a significant opportunity to receive invaluable funding to help turn some of the worst effected high streets around. However, it’s not just up to local authorities to make this happen, instead it’s the responsibility of everyone within the real estate sector to ensure that this money goes to worthy recipients who are dedicated to the health and wealth of their town centres.

Further information

Contact Savills Property Management