Helping the homeless, innovation and cheaper parking can save Britain’s high streets, insists Housing Secretary
HIGH Streets can be saved by innovation, loyalty to local shops and cheaper parking, insists Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.
His department’s Towns Hub unit is coordinating a £3.6billion fund for 100 “overlooked and undervalued” towns.
The Housing Secretary has said that reducing homelessness will help save Britain's neglected high streets, making town centres safer and a more inviting place for people to visit.
In an interview with The Sun, he also threw down the gauntlet to council bosses to reduce parking charges or offer free parking windows to boost accessibility to town centres.
And he issued a rallying cry to the nation to do their bit to save the High Street by shopping and eating more locally rather than using online alternatives like Deliveroo or Amazon.
But Mr Jenrick - who spoke to The Sun on a visit to Wolverhampton - insisted the Government cannot “turn the clock back” to traditional-looking high streets.
He said to survive and thrive in the 2020s high streets must become more innovative with the services they provide.
The Cabinet minister suggested high streets could boost footfall by increasing leisure facilities, equipping libraries with more digital services and groups for children, vulnerable groups and the elderly and packing their centres with shops that can offer “high quality retail” experiences and services that online retailers could never offer themselves.
FUNDING 'OVERLOOKED AND UNDERVALUES' TOWNS
Mr Jenrick was speaking ahead of the launch of a new Town of the Year competition he announced last night to celebrate Britain’s most thriving and innovative high streets.
His visit to Wolverhampton was the first of 100 ‘Town Tours’ he will embark on in the coming months to ensure the Government is doing all it can to help struggling high streets.
He also announced he is restructuring his Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to make sure the revival of towns is one of its top priorities.
A new Towns Hub unit will coordinate the Government’s £3.6 billion fund that is being pumped into 100 towns that have been overlooked and undervalued across the country, with each town given a dedicated team of civil servants.
Mr Jenrick said the move will ensure Boris Johnson’s government is “relentlessly focused on these communities and to make sure Whitehall is actually working for them for the first time”.
But he said local councils had a responsibility to use what is in their power increase high street footfall themselves - and said parking fees were a major deterrence to people using their high streets.
The Cabinet minister said: “The big challenges is getting more footfall into town and city centres so councils have got to be ambitious and take some bold decisions and I absolutely support councils who choose to reduce parking charges.”
“The evidence shows that lower charges attracts higher footfall. It’s getting the basics right that really matter. We’ve got to make it as accessible as possible to get into a town centre.”
As the youngest member of the Cabinet at 38, Mr Jenrick vowed to make it his “personal mission” to get more younger people on the housing ladder through schemes such as discounts for local first-time buyers and 25-year fixed term mortgages.
But he said homelessness was “one of the most important issues to me as Housing Secretary” and said the initiatives the Government has introduced over the last few years were finally starting to bear fruit.
He said: “Last year saw the first fall in rough sleeping for a long time and the initial figures which we’ve seen for the count that was done in November seem very positive, they’re going to be published formally next month.
“It appears there’s going to be a substantial reduction in rough sleeping in most parts of the country.”
'PERSONAL MISSION'
Mr Jenrick said a key part of the Government's strategy to increase footfall on the High Street was bolstering safety.
He said: "We’ve obviously got to ensure that town centres are inviting places where people feel safe at all times of day and night.
"That isn’t the case in all of our town centres today.” And he said the issue was also “extremely important” for the Government’s towns strategy.
Mr Jenrick said: “It’s important for many reasons but not least because we want these to be safe and inviting environments for people to spend time in.”
During his visit in Wolverhampton earlier in the day Mr Jenrick spoke to one of the area’s leading businessmen Tom Vater, owner of the popular independent Blooms Menswear retailer.
He told the Housing Secretary that footfall in the centre of Wolverhampton had been hampered by a rise in the number of homeless people begging for money and “defecating the area” in key access areas for shoppers, such as car parks.
He told Mr Jenrick: “For me, you’ve got to address the homeless problem.”
MOST READ IN UK NEWS
In a boost for struggling small firms Mr Jenrick refused to rule out scrapping business rates altogether as part of the Government's fundamental review of the property-based levy.
Urging Brits to do more to help their local high street, Mr Jenrick said: "If you care about having a vibrant high street then you’ve got to make an effort in your own personal life to shop there and spend time there. We all care about communities at the end of the day.
"I certainly use Deliveroo and as a busy working parent the internet has in many ways been very helpful but nobody wants to live in a community where the town centre is neglected and underused because it’s the heart of having a vibrant town centre/community."
- GOT a story? Ring The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or email [email protected].