Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps the Government is taking to provide (a) financial and (b) other support to local high streets to assist with recovery from covid-19 restrictions in advance of the spring trading period.

This Government is fully committed to supporting the businesses and communities that make our high streets and town centres successful as the nation responds to the impacts of COVID-19. We have provided a comprehensive package of around £400 billion of direct support to the economy during this financial year and last, which has helped to safeguard jobs, businesses and public services in every region and nation of the UK. This package includes business grants, the coronavirus loan schemes, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, as well as deferral of income tax payments.  In addition, on 21 December 2021 the Chancellor announced further support of over £700 million in grant support for businesses most impacted by the Omicron variant, as part of an overall package of £1 billion to support businesses across the UK.

We are taking further concrete steps towards reviving our high streets and town centres by committing billions of pounds to support economic growth and regeneration for high streets, through the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund, which will invest in infrastructure to improve everyday local life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets. There is also the £220 million UK-wide Community Renewal Fund, the £150 million Community Ownership Fund, and the £3.6 billion Towns Fund, which includes support for 101 Town Deals and 72 Future High Streets Fund projects.

Beyond substantial funding offers, Government is providing support to local leadership with the High Streets Task Force. Over five years this is providing hands-on support to local areas to develop data-driven innovative strategies and to connect local areas to relevant experts. On 20th March, we were pleased to announce the next 70 local authorities due to receive bespoke expert support, which has taken place over 2021 and will continue into 2022. We will be announcing a further tranche of local authorities to receive in-person expert support from the Task Force in due course.

In addition to this, the Build Back Better High Streets strategy published in July 2021 forms a key part of Government's plan to level up and will deliver visible changes to local areas and communities across England. To address adaptation and reinvention of our high streets, in September 2020 we also introduced reforms to the use classes to enable more flexible use of existing buildings. Through these reforms we will help create more vibrant, mixed use town centre areas, attracting people to shop, work, live and for leisure activities, ensuring they remain viable now and in the future.

Reviving our high streets and town centres is essential to this Government's commitments to level up the country. We will shortly be publishing the Levelling Up White Paper, which will set out in more detail how this Government will be helping places around the country.