Comment

PM’s Project Speed bypasses town centres

The Prime Minister’s £5 billion FDR-style plan to stave unemployment, boost construction of social and transport infrastructure and level up the country was unveiled this morning.

While plans to support jobs in this time of much uncertainty and hardship are not to be dismissed, the PM’s plan is largely agnostic to which parts of our towns and city economies are likely to be hit hardest by COVID-19.

Town centres will be amongst the hardest hit. The planning reforms announced this morning will help speed up the development process, but do not tackle the issue of town centre development viability or funding availability.

No proposals were set out this morning for accelerating funding for town centres and this is a missed opportunity. Speeding up the allocation of funding from existing programmes such as the Future High Streets Fund and the £3.6 billion Towns Fund would have given a much needed boost to town centres. It can take 12 months or more to unlock funding support for town centre projects through these funding streams – a pace which seems glacial compared to the changes wrought on high street businesses over the last few weeks. This lack of pace is due in part to the project appraisal process that the Government follows.

The Chancellor announced a review of HM Treasury’s Green Book (the rule book Government departments use to determine funding decisions) in the Spring budget statement. It is imperative that this work is completed quickly and measures adopted to help town centres access funding more quickly. This, alongside planning reforms announced, would help the country to build back better (and quicker) in its town centres.

Five ways to accelerate funding for town centres

1. Create a “Town Centre Trail Blazer” fund for designated Towns Fund areas by top slicing the £3.6 billion already announced. Implement a streamlined project eligibility process to get job creating projects off the ground quickly
2. Factor in place-based challenges and local solutions to the funding appraisal process and recognise that no place or project is homogenous
3. Place greater weight in the decision making process on the strategic alignment of projects with agreed and locally owned strategies for town centres
4. Allow whole programmes of town centre regeneration to be appraised for funding, rather than relying on assessment and performance of individual projects
5. Offer funding deals for whole programmes of town centre regeneration to generate investor and co-funder confidence in places

Speeding up investment in our town centres should be a key part of the Government’s recovery plan rather than being bypassed. Much could be achieved just by adjusting the way that projects are appraised, streamlining processes and committing to deploying existing funding streams quicker. This is eminently achievable and within the Government’s gift to do so.

30 June 2020

Further to publication of this comment the Government has announced that 101 Towns Fund areas will each receive £50,000-£1million funding to spend on parks, high streets and transport. Full details are available here.