High streets to receive £150m cash boost amid mass UK store closures | Personal Finance | Finance
£150 million cash boost to be given to high streets following mass store closures in England (Image: Getty)
High streets with boarded-up store fronts and no basic amenities such as butchers, grocers and bakeries will receive multimillion-pound support from the Government. The newly announced £150 million cash injection will target areas most affected by mass store closures.
The support forms part of Labour’s “pathway for renewal” to help “change the future” of the high street’s decline. This was despite the party significantly increasing operating costs in the previous two autumn budgets. Around 25 high street brands and banks closed hundreds of branches in 2025, and this trend is expected to continue in 2026. Many people blamed the closures on affordability issues following increases in business rates, minimum wage and National Insurance.
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The move comes despite Labor significantly increasing running costs during the last two Autumn Budgets. (Image: Getty)
Communities Minister Steve Reed said: “Our high streets are the beating heart of Britain, where communities come together and local businesses can thrive.
“City centers have suffered from the collapse of high streets and so we are taking action to turn the tide with this significant investment and more to come.
“We have listened to what people have told us and that is why we are giving them back the power and control to breathe new life into our high streets and bring back the sense of pride that communities feel, building on our transformational Pride in Place programme.”
The first step in the government’s upcoming ‘High Street Strategy’ will be to bring people back to local high streets by supporting local, independent businesses, improving neglected shop fronts and opening vacant units.
The strategy will build on action already taken through the ‘Pride in Place’ programme, which aims to get councils in England to say no to new betting shops and vape shops, support more than 1,000 local pubs providing extra services for their communities and revitalize “more than 330 of the most deprived areas”.
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Other steps to help “revitalize” the high street include plans to introduce a new community right-to-buy through the British Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill to give local people “more power to save valuable community assets such as sports clubs and pubs”.
The government will also put an end to ‘bar deserts’ by banning the destruction of the last social facility in an area. Action will also be taken to combat the proliferation of betting shops on high streets.
More details about the High Streets Strategy, including how funding will be allocated to specific locations, will be announced in the coming months.
Small business owners and leaders complained that investment was just scratching the surface. Jess Magill, co-founder Powderkeg Brewery based in Woodbury SaltertonHe said the funding was not enough.
He said: “Whilst it is great that the Government has recognized the problem, the level of funding will not be anywhere near enough. With business rates rises, the Government is taking it with one hand and throwing back the crumbs. “There is a shopping center in our local town owned by a private real estate firm who are happy to see units sit empty in old, run-down retail properties.
“Many other towns have the same problem; local people don’t have the power to change things. Add to that the fact that people are being squeezed left, right and centre, and we’re going to need a lot more to solve this problem.
“We’re seeing shops, bars and restaurants closing all the time, businesses that were able to survive seven years ago are now failing and it’s not the fault of the people who run them.”
Clive Bonny, managing director Strategic Management PartnersHe said: “According to UK Government statistics there are 325,000 small independent high street retailers in the UK, many of whom are struggling to survive. So £140 million equates to £461 per retailer.”
“Can we see the plan specifying who will receive this support, how it will be spent, and a Return on Investment (ROI) estimate rather than a fancy headline budget?”
Rohit Parmar-Mistry, founder Burton-on-Trent based Pattern DataHe added: “This initiative is a paltry plaster on a gaping economic wound.
“£150 million across the UK is a rounding error that only scratches the surface of the problem. You can paint a shop front, renovate a sign and open a community centre, but if local people have zero disposable income it will fail. It’s that simple.”
