With the February launch of the UK Government’s much-awaited White Paper, we ask what are the opportunities for Levelling Up our town and city centres.
Restoring pride in place
The apparent good news about opportunities for levelling up for our town and city centres is that restoring a sense of community, local pride and belonging is one of the three main focus areas of the Government’s Levelling Up White Paper.
A commitment is made that “by 2030, pride in place, such as people’s satisfaction with their town centre and engagement in local culture and community, will have risen in every area of the UK, with the gap between top performing and other areas closing.” This sits alongside other people, place and pride-related commitments for improving housing and reducing crime.
The White Paper commits the Government to creating opportunities for levelling up town and city centres by helping explore how high streets can become the thriving hearts of our communities again. This includes, for example, testing ways to incentivise and require landlords to fill vacant units so that long-term vacant properties might be used by local businesses or community groups.
There is also a commitment to regenerate 20 of our major towns and cities by assembling and remediating brownfield land to bring about transformational developments combining housing, retail and business in sustainable, walkable, beautiful new neighbourhoods. Such developments amongst others, will be supported by a new ‘Office for Place’ which will pioneer design and beauty, promoting better architectural aesthetics to ensure they enhance existing settlements.
Rural areas will not be ignored either, with a commitment made to publish the second report on rural proofing in Spring 2022, that will set out support for levelling up in rural areas by strengthening the rural economy, developing rural infrastructure and delivering rural services.
New Shared Prosperity Fund
Opportunities for levelling up our town and city centres will be financially-backed by the new £2.6bn UK Shared Prosperity Fund . The new fund is a key component of the Government’s support for places across the UK and will be used to help restore local pride. In England, the Fund will focus on communities and local business interventions to boost pride in place in 2022-23 and 2023-24. Importantly, all areas of the UK will receive an allocation from the Fund via a funding formula rather than a competition. Its mix of revenue and capital funding can be used to support a wide range of interventions to build pride in place and improve life chances.
The overall objectives of this investment priority for communities and place are:
- strengthening our social fabric and fostering a sense of local pride and belonging, through investment in activities that enhance physical, cultural and social ties and amenities, such as community infrastructure and local green space, and community-led projects.
- to build resilient and safe neighbourhoods, through investment in quality places that people want to live, work, play and learn in, through targeted improvements to the built environment and innovative approaches to crime prevention.
Example interventions provided in the White Paper for levelling up our town and city centres are visual improvements to town centres and high streets, cultural/visitor economy interventions, litter, waste and graffiti reduction, projects to fight antisocial behaviour, and capital funding to improve neighbourhoods or community projects and initiatives.
Recognising the acute challenges town centres and communities have faced during the Covid pandemic, the Government states that this Fund will enable improvements to the places people live, as well as support individuals and businesses. It will drive noticeable improvements that matter to local communities and foster local pride in place. whether that be promoting new outdoor markets, reducing litter, graffiti and anti-social behaviour, reviving high streets or supporting local businesses.
The objectives of local businesses investment priority include creating jobs and boosting community cohesion, through investments that build on existing industries and institutions, and range from support for starting businesses to visible improvements to local retail, hospitality and leisure sector facilities.
Example interventions may include support to increase town centre footfall, outdoor markets, the development of cultural, visitor and heritage assets, targeted business growth and innovation support.
The Government will publish further information on the Fund later in the spring 2022. This will include the Fund’s outcomes and an interventions toolkit – guidance for how local areas should select local outcomes and a list of interventions from which places can choose. At the same time, each local authority area will be ‘commissioned’ to develop a local Investment Plan for government sign off.
Councils working with local partnerships
The Prosperity Fund’s interventions will be planned and delivered by local authorities, working closely with local partners. To access their allocation, each place will be asked to set out measurable outcomes they are looking to deliver, and what interventions they are choosing to prioritise in an Investment Plan. These will be submitted this summer for UK Government approval.
Whilst administered through local authorities, the Government recognise that comprehensive and balanced local partnerships will be a core component of how the Fund will be administered locally. Local authorities will be tasked to work with a diverse range of local stakeholders, civic society organisations and businesses to achieve Fund outcomes in their areas. Such local partners will support the authority leading the Fund in each place to develop a joint Investment Plan.
The Government also intends to pilot a set of Community Covenant approaches that will create new agreements between councils, public bodies and communities to empower them in shaping the regeneration of their areas.
Other Levelling Up funds for places
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund forms part of a suite of complementary Government funding providing opportunities for levelling up our town and city centres. It seeks to build on the existing, competitive Levelling Up Fund and Community Ownership Fund through providing long-term, stable funding, allocated to all places.
The existing £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund seeks to contributes to the levelling up agenda by investing in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town and city centres, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets.
The Fund will create levelling up opportunities for our town and city centres achieve by focusing on:
- town centre and high street regeneration, including remediation and repurposing of vacant and brownfield sites;
- improving local transport connectivity and infrastructure, including upgrades to local bus, road and cycle infrastructure; and
- maintaining and regenerating cultural, heritage and civic assets.
All areas can apply to Levelling Up Fund though priority will be given to places deemed in most need of investment through targeted capacity funding, to support them in preparing high-quality bids. Bids from all places will still be considered for funding on their merits of deliverability, value for money and strategic fit, and could still be successful if they are of high enough quality.
The £150 million Community Ownership Fund aims to deliver on the Government commitment to strengthen community rights and support community groups to protect and take over assets of community value. The fund will run over a total of 4 years until 2024/25.
The Levelling Up White Paper says that 100% of the Arts Council England funding uplift announced in the 2021 Spending Review, will be directed outside London, with support for theatre, museums and galleries, libraries and dance in towns which have been deprived of investment in the past.
The Government says it will consider a Community Wealth Fund to underpin long-term community-led regeneration, and focus lottery cash to reach into the most deprived areas of the country.
Local leaders guide to revitalising town centres
The People & Places Partnership are creators of the Local Government Association’s national guidance for local leaders on revitalising town centres toolkit. This toolkit includes practical guidance on approaches to post-COVID 19 recovery planning and levelling up, including a case study on People & Places’ support for reopening & revitalising Selby town centre and reopening East Suffolk’s towns.
Find out more about the Shared Prosperity Fund and the opportunities it provides for sharing prosperity across our towns and cities, including how to get hold of our free guide on the Shared Prosperity Fund & its opportunities for communities, place & local business.
