Government announces ‘Portas Plus’ deal for UK High Streets

Following on from the government’s response to the Portas Review of the country’s ailing High Streets, Local Government Minister Grant Shapps has put some money behind Mary Portas’ ideas.

The funding package includes:

• A multi-million pound High Street Innovation Fund - kick started by £10 million of tax payers money focused on bringing empty shops back into use - which, if supplemented by both councils and landlords, could see £30 million going to support new business start-ups whilst bringing empty High Street properties back into use.
• A £1 million Future High Street x-Fund, which will be awarded in a year's time to the locations which deliver the most creative and effective schemes to revitalise their high streets.
• A National Markets Day, launching a National Markets Fortnight, to celebrate the role markets can play, help aspiring entrepreneurs try out their business ideas, and encourage more visitors to town centres.
• A £500,000 fund for Business Improvement Districts [BIDs], to help Town Centres access loans for their set-up costs.
• Launching a further round of Portas Pilots, to trial some of Mary's recommendations and come up with new ideas to breathe life into underused high streets. This is in response to the massive interest from hundreds of locations across the country, sparked by the competition for the first wave of 12 pilots launched last month.

Read more on The Portas Review and Portas Plans at BrightonBusiness.co.uk - click here.

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