Rescue plan to halt the death of the great British high street | Politics | News
The government has promised to revitalize high streets and create playgrounds across the country as it announced £319 million in funding to tackle urban decay. The Express Save Our Main Street campaign has forced politicians from different tribes to grasp the challenge of stopping the hollowing out of our city centres.
A major new initiative to revitalize “struggling high streets” and “increase footfall” will benefit from £301 million in funding. Thanks to an £18m investment, 66 communities struggling with high levels of poverty will get new playgrounds or revitalize old playgrounds.
The new projects are part of the “Pride in Place” strategy to transform neighborhoods. Local businesses and groups will be encouraged to drive regeneration through “high street innovation partnerships” Town centers could become “mixed-use” areas with new homes, healthcare, libraries, community centers and green spaces. A “summer event” is being promised on the high streets to get more people visiting these once vibrant areas.
This comes alongside a commitment to new and improved playing fields “from Tyneside to Torquay”. The places were identified as having “the highest levels of income deprivation affecting children and the poorest access to play”.
Under the wider Pride in Place programme, communities will receive £20 million over 10 years to “spend on what matters most to them” in the hope this will spark a “wave of regeneration”. The goal is to “put power back into the hands of people who have skin in the game.”
The government boasts it is “tearing up the rule book on public spending” and the five projects will test a new initiative that will see local bodies, including councils, the NHS and schools, “pool their cash and work together rather than working in silos”.
These will help children with special educational needs in Liverpool, “prevent youth crime in the North East, support young people struggling with their mental health in the Black Country, help adults facing multiple disadvantages in Doncaster and put young people into work in West Yorkshire.” If the plans are successful, this model is planned to be rolled out across the country.
Communities Minister Steve Reed said: “For too long people have watched their communities decline and had little say in how they were managed. This government is determined to change that by giving communities the tools, funding and power they need to rebuild. From new playing fields to redesigned high streets, we’re putting power back into people’s hands. People up and down the country will see and feel the difference this investment makes, restoring pride in local areas.”
Councils receiving funding for playgrounds will be encouraged to use British materials.
