£675 million Future High Streets Fund launched to revive Britain’s ailing high streets

Over the last two years, the UK has witnessed a dramatic change to its town centres as a number of iconic and well-loved names, such as House of Fraser, Maplin and Toys R Us, have left the high street. With Britain’s town centres in turmoil and in a bid to revive our ailing high streets, the Government has launched the Future High Streets Fund, a £675 million initiative to help modernise UK high streets and town centres.

The fund will be used to transform the high streets, improve transport and infrastructure, restore properties and reinvent historic buildings to bring them back into use. Local Authorities are now being urged to bid for a slice of £675million, with an average of £25million available per high street.

The Fund will operate as a two-round fund with two stages to the application process. The first phase calls for ‘Expressions of Interest’ by 22 March 2019. Local Authorities must set out their challenges and strategic approach to regenerating town centres. Those selected for the second stage will then provide full business cases.

The Government are seeking to work with visionary local leaders who understand what their local communities will need in the years to come. For further information and to apply, click here.

Here at Gillespies we really welcome this focus on our ailing high streets. In the Brexit blizzard, it is good to see a little ray of sunshine and focus once again on town and city centres. In reality, this focus has not been seen for nearly 10 years.

We are already helping clients access this funding, so please contact us if you require assistance!