Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the future of the high street towns in England outside of London.

High streets and towns form a key part of the Government's mission to level up across the country. Now, more than ever, it is vital that we continue to help our local economies by supporting town centres and high streets to innovate, evolve and thrive.

Last year we published our vision for the future of high streets in the Build Back Better High Streets strategy. This document set out the Government's long-term plan to support the evolution of high streets into thriving places to work, visit and live.

We have gone further to set out our ambition for our towns and high streets in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, published last month, through High Street Rental Auctions which will grant a permissive power to local authorities to tackle the problem of persistently vacant property on high streets and in town centres. We want to devolve power and give local leaders and communities the tools they need to make better places, and this new tool will empower places to tackle decline by bringing vacant units back into use.

The Bill forms a key component of our wider programme to level up the country, as set out in the Levelling Up White Paper published in February this year. The White Paper unveiled an ambitious programme to reduce inequality and close the gap - in productivity, health, incomes, and opportunity - between much of the south east and the rest of the country.

This is all underpinned by billions of pounds Government has already committed to support economic growth and regeneration for high streets, through the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund and the £3.6 billion Towns Fund, which includes support for 101 Town Deals and 72 Future High Streets Fund projects.