Burnham pledges £210m for high street revival ahead of Labour's first conference as PM

Andy Burnham has pledged £210m to regenerate the UK's high streets and community centres, promising to bring empty shops, pubs and offices back into use at a time when many town centres face record vacancy and shuttered storefronts.

The prime minister said the funding would be used to rescue buildings at risk of closure and turn mothballed premises into what he called "community hubs, health centres, shared workspaces, cafés and the local services that people actually want to see." The money is drawn from funding already earmarked by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for high street support and regeneration.

The announcement came ahead of Burnham's first appearance at the Labour Party conference as prime minister, which takes place in Liverpool this weekend. He is expected to make affordability the central theme of his conference speech, arguing that the cost of living remains the defining political concern for voters.

The breakdown of funds announced includes a £125m derelict buildings fund, designed to bring mothballed and dilapidated properties back into productive use. A further £85m pot would allow communities to take over neglected spaces themselves, including former pubs, clubs and shops that have fallen out of commercial use.

An additional £65m has been allocated to support businesses and buildings judged to be at risk of closure, while £20m is earmarked to help communities establish co-operative businesses and take on empty units themselves, rather than leaving them vacant while waiting for private landlords or chains to move in.

Burnham framed the intervention as a test of what economic success looks like on an everyday basis. He said people judge whether the economy is working by looking at their own high street — whether shops are opening or shutters are down, and whether an area feels as though it is advancing or being left behind. Today's funding, he said, would help put decisions back in the hands of local people who know their communities best.

Communities Secretary Angela Rayner said the scheme demonstrated a government commitment to seeing boarded-up buildings that had been "left to rack and ruin" turned once again into places residents are proud to visit. Her framing echoed the prime minister's, emphasising visible physical change in town centres rather than abstract economic indicators.

First Secretary of State Louise Haigh went further, saying the investment would give local people the resources they need to drive change in their own areas. "This is what devolution means in practice," she said, positioning the funding as a practical test of the government's commitment to handing power and resources downwards.

The move follows Burnham's summer announcement that pubs, clubs and social venues would see business rates reduced by 20% from April. Taken together, the rates relief and the regeneration package represent a two-pronged approach: lowering the fixed costs of hospitality businesses that are already trading, while bringing empty premises back into use where businesses have already folded.

The timing of the pledge has also placed Burnham under fresh pressure on economic questions. Peter Kyle, the business secretary to former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, said the prime minister needed to act with "more urgency" to boost growth, speaking as the Labour party gathered in Liverpool. His intervention suggests opposition parties are likely to frame the conference as a test of the government's economic record rather than a launch pad for new investment.

The Conservatives are expected to use the conference to set out their own alternative for town centres. According to the party, their plan for "stronger high streets" would abolish business rates for thousands of businesses and would seek to protect what they describe as key pillars of community life, including post offices, pubs and pharmacies.

Analysts of the announcement point to the scale of the challenge behind the money. High street vacancy has been climbing for several years as consumer spending shifts online, and the pandemic accelerated the departure of chains from smaller town centres that left behind units too large and too costly for local independents. Funding that helps communities acquire and repurpose those spaces addresses the supply of empty buildings, but it does not by itself guarantee that the same premises will be occupied by viable traders.

That tension is likely to dominate debate at the conference. The package offers capital for physical regeneration, but businesses occupying refurbished units still face the pressures of high rents, energy costs and weak footfall — the same pressures that the planned 20% business rates relief on pubs, clubs and social venues is intended to ease.

Burnham's own framing attempts to sidestep macroeconomic argument by focusing on tangible, local outcomes. The choice of a high street pledge, rather than a headline tax or spending measure, suggests a government conscious that economic credibility will be judged in town and city centres long before any national statistics are published.

With the conference under way in Liverpool, attention will now turn to whether affordability — the theme Burnham is expected to emphasise — is matched by a clear enough delivery plan for the regeneration money. The announcement sets out where the funding will go and who will hold it, but the test of success will be whether the shuttered units it targets begin reopening, and whether residents notice.