Government’s UK high street regeneration plan comes as trade body makes four key requests

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has allocated a £210 million package to boost the UK’s communities and high streets.

It includes empty spaces being put to use as “community hubs, health centres, shared workspaces, cafés and the local services that people actually want to see.”

It will be funded by a pot from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for high street support and regeneration and will include a £125 million derelict buildings fund to transform said buildings.

It comes as High Streets UK, a group of representatives of Britain’s flagship high streets, has launched “four asks of Government at [the] Labour Party Conference”.

The group wants the Treasury to “comprehensively reform the business rates system so that it is progressive, rewards investment, and supports the anchor stores that drive footfall to flagship high streets”.

It also wants police forces, guided by the Home Office, to “work with high street businesses and their Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) to strengthen visible policing and tackle the organised crime and anti-social behaviour that undermine confidence in city centres”.

Also included is a request for Overnight Visitor Levies to “be proportionate, simple for operators, introduced only with the meaningful involvement of local tourism sectors, and have their receipts ring-fenced for local benefit”.

And, of course, the final request is for the return of tax-free shopping, “or an alternative that serves the same goal of making the UK’s flagship high streets more internationally competitive”.