The Government recently announced a new £1.6bn Stronger Towns Fund. Local authorities in any part of the country can compete with other organisations through a bidding process for £600m of this, while the majority of the fund – the remaining £1bn – will be allocated to local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) using a needs-based formula.
This has prompted a mostly negative reaction, with director of the New Local Government Network, Adam Lent, calling it ‘a pathetically small sum' and ‘a token substitute for proper devolved funding'.
A prospectus to inform the development of local proposals has yet to be published. As we wait for this, let us consider high streets minister Jake Berry's 2018 Christmas present to local leaders – the Boxing Day launch of the £675m Future High Streets Fund.
With expressions of interest in phase one of the fund due in from local authorities this week, I fear councils have not had time to put together the right proposals.
While it is a good idea for the Government to put the money out there, I believe that forcing the pace in the way it is doing smacks of ‘we just have to get things done', rather than giving councils sufficient time to plan their bids.
The fund will contribute up to a maximum of £25m to each successful place, but the local authorities I am advising on their expressions of interest are not at a point where they have planned for developing their towns as a community hub rather than a retail attraction.
The £675m is a substantial amount of money and needs to be spent wisely and not quickly. Yet many of these applications are cosmetic approaches rather than structural frameworks for the future – and it seems the Government is saying ‘look at what we have done' instead of seeking to get some quality output from this.
I have been promoting a consistent message in my reports for more than five years. My first retail review in 2013 called for each town centre to build a 20-year vision and plan to put public spaces and libraries at the centre of ‘wired towns' based on current and future technology.
We asked the Government to ensure this vision could begin to be put in place – but it did not do anything at that stage. Our second review – The Grimsey Review 2 – followed in July 2018.
This emphasised the need for all towns to develop plans that focused on transforming the place into a complete community hub including health, housing, arts, entertainment, leisure, business/office space as well as some shops.
Mr Berry asked Sir John Timpson to do a further review on the high street – and this was published just days before the publication of the Future High Streets Fund call for proposals.
This £675m fund is needed – but I am concerned that councils are not yet ready to put in applications for meaningful projects that represent a 20-year vision for town centres in line with my recommendations. They are going to put forward schemes they already have ‘on the shelf' rather than plans we need for repopulated and re-fashioned town centres fit for the challenges of 21st century life.
So while I welcome the money, the speed of the bidding process is out of kilter with the timetable for developing the sort of schemes that will ensure it is well spent.
Our towns and their communities deserve a better approach from Government than this.
Bill Grimsey is the former chief executive of Wickes, Iceland, Focus DIY and Park n Shop Hong Kong
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