In its response to the Mary Portas High Street Review, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is set to announce that Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) will receive a £500,000 fund to help with set-up costs.
Ministers are expected to say that they are accepting the “vast majority” of Portas’s recommendations – but that they intend to go further with a “raft of new incentives, funding schemes and bureaucracy-busting measures in a bid to rejuvenate the country’s rundown high streets”.
In December, Portas set out recommendations to free up the high street from constraint such as red tape, to level the playing field between high streets and out-of-town centres and to introduce a more flexible planning system.
In what ministers are referring to as their ‘Portas Plus’ response, a £500,000 fund for BIDs will help town centres access loans for their set-up costs.
A multi-million pound High Street Innovation Fund will be kick-started by £10m of taxpayers money focused on bringing empty shops back into use. The DCLG said that if this is supplemented by both councils and landlords, we could see £30 million going to support new business start-ups whilst bringing empty high street properties back into use.
The Government will also launch a further round of Portas Pilots, or Town Teams, to trial some of Portas’s recommendations. This is in response to big interest from hundreds of locations sparked by the first wave of 12 pilots launched last month.
Grant Shapps said: “Today, I’m accepting virtually all of the recommendations from Mary Portas’s review, but I’m also going that one step further, offering a ‘Portas-Plus’ deal, with a range of measures designed to help local people turn their high streets into the beating hearts of their communities once again.
“Mary Portas’s report has provided the catalyst for change that many towns have been craving. I now want to see people coming together to form their own town teams.”
British Beer and Pub Association chief executive Brigid Simmonds said: “I’m pleased to see a £500,000 investment fund to help BIDs with their start up costs. BIDs have been really successful in getting venues, the licensing authorities and the police to work well together for the good of their town centres.
“There are now over 100 BIDs, which shows this works. In Nottingham, which led the way, we’ve seen money raised by the levy-payers themselves, to fund taxi marshals at weekends, street ambassadors, the part part-funding of an annual food and drink festival, clean-up campaigns and other initiatives.
“All this has improved the atmosphere in the city centre, and the Government is right to invest in voluntary schemes that really work. At the end of the day, successful town centres are vibrant and safe. Pubs and the night-time economy have a very positive part to play in revitalising our town centres.”
The British Property Federation (BPF) had campaigned for a review in the use of the annual RPI uplift for business rates. BPF chief executive Liz Peace added: “Today’s response should not be seen as the end of the process, but the start of one – a call to arms for anyone who cares about our high streets. Government help on funding and policy is welcome, but ultimately if we want our high streets to thrive a clear local-driven vision is required. By strengthening BIDs, introducing Town Teams, and also business neighbourhood planning, there has never been a better time for those who care about our high streets to get involved.”