Prime Minister pledges over £1.1bn in levelling up funding
2nd October 2023 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced plans to provide 55 “left-behind” towns with a total of £1.1bn in levelling up funding. The Government’s ‘Long-term Plan for Towns’ will provide the locations with £20m endowment-style funds over 10 years for investment into “local people’s priorities”. The funding is expected to be spent on local priorities, such as reviving high streets, tackling anti-social behaviour, improving transport, and growing the local economy. Under the new approach, town boards will be set up to bring together community leaders, employers, local authorities, and the local MP, with the aim of delivering the long-term plan and bringing it to local people for consultation. The plan also looks to use a number of regeneration powers to unlock more private sector investment through the auctioning of empty high street shops, reforming licensing rules on shops and restaurants, and supporting more town centre housing. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Towns are the place most of us call home and where most of us go to work. But politicians have always taken towns for granted and focused on cities. “The result is the half-empty high streets, run-down shopping centres and anti-social behaviour that undermine many towns’ prosperity and hold back people’s...
