A £210 million England-wide government funding package has been announced to help bring boarded-up shops, pubs, clubs and other derelict buildings back into use.
The announcement comes just weeks after Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner visited Ilkeston town centre as part of the Government’s plans to revive struggling high streets.
During the visit on 11 August, they walked up Bath Street before meeting residents and business owners at The Hub coffee shop.
Ilkeston was used as the backdrop for proposals intended to give councils and communities greater influence over their town centres, including tighter controls on new vape shops and adult gaming centres.
The latest announcement moves the focus to empty and neglected buildings.
The largest element is a £125 million derelict buildings fund. It is intended to help councils renovate vacant shopping centres, disused cinemas and other abandoned properties, with possible new uses including community halls, health centres, cafes and shared workspaces.
A further £65 million will be available to help communities rescue and refurbish buildings and businesses at risk of closure, including pubs and clubs.
The remaining £20 million will be divided equally between two schemes. One £10 million pot will support co-operative ownership of businesses considered important to their communities. Another £10 million will support councils using High Street Rental Auctions.
These auctions give councils powers to bring persistently empty commercial properties back into use. A property may qualify if it has been vacant continuously for 12 months, or for at least 366 days across a two-year period. Other legal conditions must also be met before the power can be used.
The £210 million is a national package intended to support projects across England, rather than an allocation for Ia specific area. No funding has yet been confirmed and details of how the different pots will be distributed have not been published. The money is being redirected from funding already earmarked for high-street regeneration, so it should not be interpreted as £210 million of entirely new government spending.
The programme could be relevant to Ilkeston because of the number of long-empty and neglected properties in and around the town centre. Any money secured through these new schemes would be separate from Cotmanhay’s existing Pride in Place allocation, which is restricted to projects within that programme’s defined area.
The Government is expected to publish a wider high streets strategy later this year. With Ilkeston chosen as the backdrop for its high-street plans only weeks ago, the question now is whether that attention will be followed by investment in the town.
Which empty or neglected building in Ilkeston would you most like to see brought back into use?
