Derelict shopping centres, empty cinemas and abandoned buildings across England are to be transformed into cafes, workspaces and community hubs under a £210 million package announced by the government on 25 September, as ministers pledge to hand more power over local regeneration to communities themselves.
Derelict buildings on England’s high streets are set to be brought back into use as cafes, shared workspaces and community hubs, under a £210 million funding package unveiled by the government on 25 September. The money, drawn from funding already earmarked by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) for high street support and regeneration, is intended to help local authorities and communities revive vacant shopping centres, disused cinemas and other abandoned properties. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the initiative formed part of a wider effort to shift decision-making power over regeneration into local hands.
How the £210 million will be divided
The largest component of the package is a new £125 million Derelict Buildings Fund, which will support councils in targeting the most severely neglected properties in their areas, including vacant shopping centres and former cinemas. Local authorities will be able to use the funding to convert these buildings for a range of new uses, including health centres, community facilities, offices and civic spaces.
A further £65 million will go towards helping communities across England rescue buildings and businesses at risk of closure, such as pubs, clubs and sports facilities. This strand builds on the government’s existing Pride in Place programme, which has previously supported local residents in taking over the youth centre in Ramsgate and redeveloping the former Brunswick Shopping Centre in Scarborough.
The remaining £20 million will be split evenly between two initiatives: £10 million to support High Street Rental Auctions, and £10 million for a newly established Co-operative Development Programme.
Existing powers to fill empty shops
High Street Rental Auctions are not a new policy but an existing legal mechanism that allows councils to bring long-term vacant commercial properties back into use. Under the scheme, a property becomes eligible once it has stood empty for at least 366 days within a 24-month period, at which point a council can use the auction process to secure a new tenant. Government funding can also help councils carry out the work needed to make such properties lettable, including repairs, shopfront improvements and asbestos removal.
The new £10 million regional Co-operative Development Programme, meanwhile, will support mayors and strategic authorities in establishing more co-operative businesses, owned and run by the staff, customers and communities who use them, allowing local people to share more directly in their high street’s success.
Part of a much larger regeneration effort
Today’s announcement sits within the government’s broader Pride in Place programme, which has up to £5.8 billion allocated over ten years and covers 284 communities across the country, with some areas eligible for up to £20 million in funding over the decade. The £210 million package represents an additional element of this wider strategy to regenerate deprived neighbourhoods and town centres.
Government evaluation of earlier town-centre regeneration schemes found that participating towns recorded an approximate 6.7 per cent increase in footfall compared with similar towns that had not received funding, alongside a 3.8 percentage-point improvement in residents’ reported pride in their local area. However, these figures do not guarantee that every project funded under the new package will achieve comparable results.
Ministerial reaction
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the state of local high streets was a more meaningful measure of growth for most people than economic statistics. “People don’t measure growth by looking at a spreadsheet. They measure it by looking at their local high street. Are shops opening or are the shutters down? Does the place feel like it’s moving forward or being left behind?” he said. “The truth is that too many high streets have been left to hollow out, leaving town centres a shell of what they once were. That must change, and today’s funding will help put power back into the hands of locals who know their area best. That’s how we restore pride and bring hope back. Not by telling people things are getting better, but by giving them the power to see and feel the difference where they live.”
Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner said the funding was designed to empower communities directly. “Nobody knows a high street better than the community that it belongs to. That’s why this money puts power directly into their hands,” she said. “We’ll see boarded-up buildings that have been left to rack and ruin turned into places people are proud to visit again, the pubs and clubs that mean so much to them thriving once more, and local businesses growing and creating jobs that put money back into their own community.”
First Secretary of State Louise Haigh said the investment reflected a broader shift in how government approaches local regeneration. “For too long, places in every part of the country have been overlooked by Westminster. High streets neglected, town centres left in decline and local assets left to decay,” she said. “This investment will help to regenerate and breathe new life into our communities – giving local people the resources and powers they need to make a real change. This is what devolution means in practice – empowering local leaders to fix things that are broken and protect the things that matter most to people.”
Part of a wider roadmap
The funding forms part of a broader programme coordinated through the Place Regeneration taskforce, led by the First Secretary of State alongside government departments, ministers and local authorities, as part of a wider roadmap to rebuild communities across Britain. The government has said it will go further later this year with the publication of a full High Streets Strategy, setting out its longer-term approach to transforming town centres across England.
