Hambleton District Council has admitted it is facing a tough task in bidding for a share of a £675m government fund for high streets.
The council’s cabinet heard while the authority had initially hoped to lodge a bid covering all five of the district’s market towns, government criteria meant the application would have to be restricted to Northallerton, despite it featuring a strong retail offer.
The meeting was told the economic success of Northallerton, “the retailing heart of Hambleton” – which in January was named in Halifax’s annual quality of life survey as the fourth best place to live in the UK – would count against it in the bid.
Moreover, in its prospectus for the Future High Streets Fund, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government highlights in bold font: “We will not accept bids covering town centre areas that are not facing significant challenges.”
However, launching the fund in December, James Brokenshire, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government stated the government was looking to work with “visionary local leaders who understand what their local communities will need in the years to come”.
He added: “We want to see the regeneration of our town centres through innovative proposals around transport, housing delivery and our public services.”
The authority’s economic development boss, Councillor Peter Wilkinson, told the meeting it would be wrong to suggest Hambleton’s market towns were not facing challenges.
He said: “One of the issues is the high rents in our market towns for some of the properties and the landlords are not prepared to negotiate. Northallerton, for instance, has some of the highest rents in the North-East, which causes the businesses to have some difficulty.
“The other issue for some shops is that they are just too small for modern businesses, so there will always be some empty shops on the high street.”
Nevertheless, the meeting heard Hambleton’s market towns were in “a fair position compared with the rest of the country”.
The council’s deputy chief executive Mick Jewitt added presenting a successful application for funding would be “a challenge”, as those scrutinising the bids would look at issues such as deprivation and empty properties.
However, he said he remained optimistic that Northallerton could land some of the funding.
Mr Jewitt said: “It’s also about having a clear vision of your market towns going forward and having ambition. The government is also interested in vision and ambition that might be transferable to other areas.
“We may be able to demonstrate a convincing case that this council has ambitious projects for the future which are innovative, which could potentially act as exemplars for elsewhere.”
Cllr Wilkinson added: “I have to manage expectations. There is only £675m and there will be a lot of towns throughout the country applying for parts of this grant. There will be stiff competition from towns that in economic decline, while I wouldn’t say Northallerton actually is.
“While it is the right thing to do to look for funding for our market towns I am not convinced we will have a town that will be awarded any of this fund. I don’t want anyone running away thinking we have a large amount of money to spend. We have a number of fences to jump before we are awarded this money.”
Cllr Wilkinson said the authority was also in the process of applying for a share of the government’s £1.6bn Stronger Towns Fund, which will be targeted at “places that have not shared in the proceeds of growth in the same way as more prosperous parts of the country”.
He said that application would aim “to cover as many of our market towns as possible”.
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