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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the regeneration of town centres.

Government is working to deliver a package of long-term measures that support town centre regeneration. This includes the £3.6 billion Towns Fund, where we brought forward over £80 million funding this year to support immediate improvements in 101 towns selected for deals. The fund will support local areas in England to renew and reshape town centres and high streets in a way that improves experience, drives growth and ensures future sustainability.

Our £1 billion Future High Streets Fund competition will help create jobs and build more resilient local economies and communities. We are in the final stages of assessing the proposals from the 101 shortlisted applicants and expect to announce the outcome of the competition soon.

Further, the Government is launching a new Levelling Up Fund worth £4 billion for England. This will invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities and will support economic recovery.

Government is also providing support through the High Streets Task Force, helping local leaders in their work revitalising their high streets and town centres by providing proactive support to local areas to develop data-driven innovative strategies and connect local areas to relevant experts.

In addition, Government has recently reformed the use classes order to create a new ‘Commercial, Business and Service’ use class which will give businesses greater flexibility to change to a broad range of uses, such as shops, leisure, and offices as well as nurseries and health centres, without the need for planning permission. More widely we are looking to transform the planning system as set out in the White Paper ‘Planning for the Future’ which will make it simpler, quicker and more accessible, and more certain for developers.