Partner Article

400 Town Teams share £5.5m aid package

The Government is set to award 400 Town Teams a share of a multi-million pound package which will help them to revive high streets across the UK.

The Local Government Minister Grant Shapps also announced the creation of 15 new Portas Pilots, taking the total across the UK to 27.

Mr Shapps has now called on MPs from the 392 towns not chosen as Town Team member to sign a national pledge to become a Town Team Partner, which will enable them to access a portion of a £5.5 million support package.

Towns who sign up to the agreement will be offered aid to implement their ideas, as well as mentoring support, direct benefit from the experience of Portas Pilots and access to events, workshops and seminars addressing challenges facing struggling town centres.

Grant Shapps said: “Today I’d like to congratulate the 15 town teams that, in the face of stiff competition, have been selected to be the next Portas Pilots. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, and I’m determined that we don’t turn our backs on the other 392 Town Teams who put their plans forward to revive their high streets.

“I don’t want to lose the incredible momentum and I want to know that no town is left behind after such an enthusiastic and imaginative response to Mary Portas’s review.

“So alongside the 27 Portas Pilots across the country, these Town Team Partners will also be able to revive their high streets and make them the beating hearts of their communities once again.”

This additional package of support forms part of a wider response to Mary Portas’s Review, which was published last December. All town teams from across the country will also be able to bid for a £1million Future High Street X-Fund to reward the most effective and creative schemes to encourage people back to the town centres in 2013, and a £500,000 fund to help access set-up loans for new Business Improvement Districts.

Martin Blackwell, chief executive of the Association of Town Centre Management, said: “The response to the challenge created by the government’s response to the Mary Portas report from communities in towns and cities across England was enormous.

“It is terrific to see the government acknowledging that groundswell of activity in such a positive way.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .