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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to support high streets to regenerate that have not benefited from Government funding to date.

Now more than ever, it is vital that we continue to help our local economies by supporting town centres and high streets to regenerate, adapt, evolve and thrive.

Government has already committed billions of pounds to support economic growth and regeneration for high streets, including £3.6 billion through the Towns Fund and Future High Streets Fund. While some of this funding is already committed, there are further forthcoming opportunities for additional funding: we are taking further concrete steps towards levelling up through initiatives including the new £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund, which will invest in infrastructure to improve everyday local life and boost growth and jobs, including through future rounds reaching more places. We will furthermore launch the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2022, and in preparation we have already supported places with £220 million through the UK Community Renewal Fund. The £150 million Community Ownership Fund, administered over four years, will help communities purchase and refurbish assets at risk of closure. Facilities including sports halls, cinemas, theatres, parks and shops are all covered by the fund that will run until 2024/25 and have at least eight bidding rounds.

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. We were pleased to be able to announce the next 70 local authorities to receive bespoke expert support in March and delivery of this support has been taking 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 2022.

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, transforming derelict buildings, supporting businesses, cleaning up our streets, improving the public realm in our towns and cities, and supporting a renewed sense of community and pride for current and future generations. This included ambitious planning reforms and encouraging the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders to address vacant property and supporting high street businesses by protecting commercial tenants from eviction and helping businesses adapt and respond to the changing high street.

To address adaptation and reinvention of our high streets, we also introduced more flexibility into the planning systems in September 2020, through a new Commercial, Business and Service use class (Class E) which allows uses within it to change between these uses without the need for a planning application. These reforms provide businesses with greater freedom to change between uses commonly found on the high street, enabling them to adjust more quickly, and with more planning certainty, to changing demands and circumstances. It allows premises to move between uses such as shops, restaurants, offices, gyms and health centres, or to provide a mix of such uses, including at different times of the day.