Future High Streets Fund: Investing in Vibrant Town Centres

1. Future High Streets Fund Laura Hurley, Cities & Local Growth Unit, MHCLGHighStreetsFund@communities.gov.uk

2. Our plan for the high street (Autumn Budget 2018) 1 • Cutting business rates bills of small retailers by one third • £675m Future High Streets Fund • High Streets Task Force • Planning consultations • Piloting a register of empty commercial properties • ‘Open Doors’ pilot in 5 town centres 2 3 4 5 6

3. 2 £675m Future High Streets Fund • Will support local areas in England to invest in infrastructure, increase access to high streets and support redevelopment and densification around high streets. • £55m of the Fund allocated to DCMS to support regeneration of heritage high streets. • In December 2018, we launched a prospectus. It set out how the Fund will operate as a two-round fund with two stages to the application process. • The Fund will contribute up to a maximum of £25 million to a place for the projects they successfully put forward. • 22 March 2019: deadline for EOIs • Summer 2019: announcement on places moving to Phase 2 • Late 2019: first round of final business cases to be submitted • Spring 2020: all business cases to be submitted • Not before 2020: second round of applications Key Dates

4. Eligibility criteria for the Future High Streets Fund • Minimum eligibility • Applications will need to meet the minimum eligibility criteria in order to be considered for funding • Town centre areas: • The geographical area covered in bids needs to meet the department’s definition of a town centre area: • An area that exhibits high levels of social and economic activity, that contains a variety of uses and functions and that acts as important service centres for extensive catchment populations. Small parades of shops of purely neighbourhood significance are not regarded as high streets or town centres for purposes of this fund. • Cities: • The Fund is not directed at central business districts of major city centres • This does not preclude cities from applying for the fund. However, EoIs focused predominantly on the main commercial or retail centres of large major cities will not be considered. • Bids should cover only one town: • Each bid must take the form of a single transformative submission that covers one town centre only • Single bids that cover more than one distinct town centre area are not eligible and will not be considered for funding.

5. Local authorities with large populations • Permitted bids • To ensure that town centres and high streets across larger authorities are able to bid for funding, authorities with populations significantly higher than the national average are able to submit more than one expression of interest to the Future High Streets Fund. • All local authorities should still prioritise town centres with significant challenges where funding can have the greatest impact. • We are expecting a high volume of bids into the fund- it will be significantly oversubscribed. The department will therefore be taking into account factors such as a ensuring a geographic spread when making decisions on funding. • Methodology: • The number of permitted bids has been calculated by comparing each authority’s population to the national average. • Annex A of the supplementary guidance includes a breakdown of the maximum number of bids allowed for each local authority.

6. Fast track capital funding projects • Shovel ready projects • If an authority has been working on a specific project that meets the objectives of the fund, please include details of this in your application. • Details of specific projects will not be considered in assessments of bids, but we may consider fast-tracking projects. • We would expect to see clear evidence of the advanced nature of these projects, for example: • masterplanning (if needed) in place • planning permissions at an advanced stage or in place • delivery capacity in place • Where to include detail: • If an authority feels that they are working on a project that meets these criteria, they should indicate this in section 3.4: Estimate of revenue funding required

7. Scored assessment questions (1) • 1.2: Population and links to wider economic area • There is no minimum population threshold for town centre areas, as town centre populations do not account for the wider catchments that town centres and high streets serve. • However, bids should include evidence that the town centre supports extensive economic and social activity, that the area provides a range of services and could be considered an important centre for the wider catchment area. • Supporting evidence could include (but is not limited to): • Resident and workplace population • Travel to work catchment area • Town centre footfall and visitor numbers • Commercial space in town centres • Evidence of retail and cultural activities • Information on the social and historical importance of the town centre area

8. Scored assessment questions (2) • 2.1: Challenges • Bids need to provide evidence that the town centre area is facing challenges that are aligned with the overall objective of the Future High Streets Fund, for example high levels of vacancy in town centres, declining footfall and overall town centre decline. • Places will be facing a variety of different challenges. Therefore, it is up to bidding authorities to decide on the evidence of challenges that they provide in their bid. Evidence could include: • British Retail Consortium KPIs such as retail sales monitor, retail employment monitor • Town centre vacancy, openings/ closures of commercial units (over time) • Town centre footfall trends and pedestrian flows • Details of town centre transport challenges (for example details of congestion and air quality issues) • Residents/ customer surveys • Details of local housing demand • 2.2: Rationale for selecting town centre area • Local authorities have an important role in prioritising the town centre(s) in their area that would benefit most from funding. • Bids need to show that authorities have considered a number of town centres and provide an assessment of the pros and cons of securing funding for different places.

9. Scored assessment questions (3) • 3.1: Town centre vision and ambition for change • Authorities need to set out their vision for regenerating the town centre and provide evidence of the level of ambition for change across the authority. • Town centre visions need to include evidence to support how the vision will help to address the challenges identified in section 2.1. • Authorities should also demonstrate that they have significant ambition for change. This can include detail of how they are prepared to be innovative and think creatively about how to address issues, evidence of strong local leadership, partnership working and joined up thinking across the local authority. • 3.2: Engagement and alignment of vision • This town centre vision should be linked to wider strategic plans across the local authority area. • Bids should include strong evidence of alignment between their town centre vision and other funding streams, both private and public. • Where there is existing or planned town centre regeneration work, authorities need to ensure that this is complemented by their proposed town centre vision. • Bids could make reference to wider strategic plans including (but not limited to) housing, transport, local growth and the Local Industrial Strategies.

10. Scored assessment questions (4) • 3.3: Support for town centre vision • Authorities need to show that they have undertaken engagement with relevant stakeholders in their area and that their town centre vision has the support of these stakeholders. • Where the success of a proposal and town centre vision is reliant upon the buy-in and cooperation of a stakeholder, evidence of engagement and support must be provided. • It is up to each bidding authority to decide which stakeholders to engage with and the form that this engagement should take • Stakeholders could include (but are not limited to): • Mayoral and non-Mayoral Combined Authorities • Local Enterprise Partnerships • Other tiers of local government in the area • Business Improvement Districts • Private sector • Community groups • Any evidence of funding that has been secured, or a willingness to fund, by the local authority and partners should be included