Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Windfall to help our high streets bounce back
£12m boost for towns reeling from pandemic’s effects:
TEN historic high streets around the West will benefit from £12 million of funding to help them recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and declining footfall.
Historic England is delivering the government’s £95 million High Streets Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) programme.
It is designed to help unlock the potential of streets that it say need a new lease of life.
The high street was facing longterm pressure from the rise of digital shopping, where competitors don’t face many of the costs traditional retailers must absorb, well before the pandemic.
But first lockdown and then the ongoing low footfall as many people continue to work from home has deepened the retail crisis.
Thousands of jobs have been lost in the retail sector and the upcoming end of the furlough scheme is expected to lead to a bigger wave of job cuts.
High Streets Minister Kelly Tolhurst MP said: “Our high streets are the beating heart of our communities and, now more than ever, have a crucial role to play in helping our towns and cities to recover from the pandemic.
“This new funding will help to transform and restore historic buildings, creating new homes, shops and community spaces, and reinvigorating local high streets up and down the country.”
The High Streets Heritage Action
Zone initiative is funded with £40 million from the Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport’s Heritage High Street Fund and £52 million from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Future High Street Fund.
A further £3 million will be provided by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to support a cultural programme.
Historic England says that distinctive buildings on our high streets give great character to local towns and cities. Up to 48 per cent of the nation’s retail stock was built before 1919 and the loss of business occupiers in these historic buildings is placing them at risk and undermining the character, local identity and viability of the high street.
Rebecca Barrett, regional director at Historic England in the South West, said: “Whether it’s a medieval market town, or a post-war city centre, every high street in England has a distinctive history that can be harnessed to help it achieve a prosperous future.
“Investing in heritage delivers good results for people – it means looking after and celebrating the places at the heart of our communities, and the buildings and public spaces which define their character. This investment for our Historic High Streets Action Zone scheme will unlock the potential of these precious high streets and help them thrive again.”
The scheme is also intended to ensure high streets can add to their long history of being the heart of places where people meet, work, shop and feel part of something bigger.
The HSHAZ scheme includes £7.4 million to fund four years of cultural activities to engage communities with their local high streets, and celebrate the role and importance of these historic areas as hubs of the community.
The cultural programme is led by Historic England, in partnership with The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England.
The cultural programme has already facilitated pilot grants to produce work that will be revealed in the run-up to the Christmas shopping season on local high streets.
From art exhibitions in empty shop windows to street art trails bringing the high street back to life, poetry penned by local people appearing on pavements to residents voicing animations, they give a flavour of what high streets can expect over the next four years’ of the cultural programme.