High streets to receive £150 million from government: "A trivial sticking plaster on a gaping economic wound"

HIGH streets will receive a £150 million cash injection from the government – but small business leaders have warned that it's "a trivial sticking plaster on a gaping economic wound".

High streets with boarded up shop fronts and lacking essentials such as butchers, grocers and bakeries will be given a multi-million-pound boost, the government announced today. 

The £150 million cash injection will be targeted in areas hit hardest in recent years, it said.

More details on the High Streets Strategy, including how funding will be allocated to specific places, will be announced in the coming months. 

Communities Secretary Steve Reed said: “Our high streets are the beating heart of Britain – where communities come together and local businesses can grow. Town centres have suffered from high streets falling into decline, and that is why we’re taking action to turn the tide with this crucial investment and more to come. 

"We have listened to what people are telling us and that’s why we’re giving them the power and control to breathe new life back into our high streets and restore the sense of pride communities feel, building on our transformational Pride in Place programme.”

But small business owners and leaders have bemoaned the investment as barely scratching the surface.

Jess Magill, Co-founder at Woodbury Salterton-based Powderkeg Brewery, said the funding is simply not enough.

She added: "While it's great that government is recognising the problem, the level of funding is not going to be anywhere near enough. With business rate hikes the government is taking away with one hand and throwing crumbs back with the other. Our local town has a shopping centre owned by a private property firm who are happy to let units stand empty in their dated, run-down retail properties. 

"Many other towns have the same problem where locals have no agency to change things. Added to this that people are being squeezed left right and centre and we're going to need a lot more to solve this problem. 

"We see shop, pubs and restaurants closing all the time, businesses that would have been viable seven years ago are failing now and it's through no fault of the people running them."

Clive Bonny, MD at Strategic Management Partners, said 

He continued: “UK has 325,000 small independent high street retailers according to UK government stats, most of whom struggle to stay alive. So £140 million equals £461 per retailer. 

"Can we please see the plan to identify who will be receiving this support, how it will be spent and the forecast Return on Investment (ROI) rather than the fancy headline budget?”

Rohit Parmar-Mistry, Founder at Burton-on-Trent-based Pattrn Data, was scathing in his response.

He added: “This initiative is a trivial sticking plaster on a gaping economic wound. £150 million across the entire UK is a rounding error that barely scratches the surface of the problem. You can paint a shop front, renovate a sign, and open a community hub, but if the local people have zero disposable income, that business will fail. Simple as that. 

"The decline of the high street isn't a cosmetic issue; it’s a systemic one caused by decades of neoliberal economics. We have built an economy designed to extract wealth from local communities to a small minority, while wages stagnate and the cost of living spirals. 

"Real regeneration doesn't come from government grants for window dressing. It comes when people have money in their pockets to spend. Until we address the root causes, wealth extraction, privatised services and wage stagnation, this is just managing decline with a smile.”