Bill Esterson
Main Page: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
2. What steps he is taking to encourage use of empty shops not covered by the Portas pilot scheme or the high street innovation fund.
Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)
11. What steps he is taking to encourage use of empty shops not covered by the Portas pilot scheme or the high street innovation fund.
The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Shapps)
Addressing the issue of empty shops is one of the priorities for the industry-led taskforce set up as a response to the Portas pilots. We are also encouraging landlords to make empty shops available for meanwhile use, and have introduced the community right to bid, to help local people sustain their vital community assets.
Grant Shapps
As the hon. Gentleman will recognise, the Portas review suggested 28 different steps. We have accepted almost all those, and one of the things we added to the list was a £10 million fund that directly helped to bring empty shops back into use. That is £5 million more than was proposed by his party.
Bill Esterson
Formby, Maghull and Crosby—three towns in my constituency—all bid unsuccessfully for the Portas cash. Sefton’s Labour council would like to help, but the scale of the cuts to local government make that almost impossible. What concrete support is the Minister going to give to revitalise our town centres, because the £10 million he mentions is not going to go far enough?
Grant Shapps
Hon. Members know that active Members of Parliament are an extremely important asset in getting those town centres working again. A second round of Portas pilot bidding is to take place, which I will announce before the end of this month. That is still open to the hon. Gentleman’s three towns. In addition, I can report to the House that going forward we intend to support all the towns—more than 370—that have applied.