Burnham puts £210m high street fund at centre of first Labour conference as prime minister

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged £210m to regenerate the UK's high streets and community centres, promising to bring empty shops, pubs and other neglected buildings back into use at a time when many town centres are still struggling with vacant units and boarded-up frontages. The announcement, made by BBC News reporter Adam Goldsmith's account of the government's plans, comes as ministers seek to demonstrate that their economic programme is being felt in communities rather than only in national statistics.

Speaking ahead of Labour's party conference in Liverpool — Burnham's first as prime minister — the prime minister said the money would be used to create "community hubs, health centres, shared workspaces, cafés and the local services that people actually want to see." The emphasis is on repurposing property that has already fallen out of commercial use, rather than on supporting new construction.

The bulk of the package is split between two headline funds. A £125m derelict buildings fund will be available to transform mothballed and dilapidated properties, while an £85m pot will allow local communities to take over neglected spaces, including former pubs, clubs and shops. Together those two elements account for the £210m headline figure.

Smaller streams run alongside them, according to the government. Some £65m has been allocated to rescuing businesses and buildings considered at risk of closure, and a further £20m is intended to help communities establish co-operative businesses and let out empty units on their own high streets. Together with the two larger funds, the government described four distinct strands of support, with the co-operative and subletting money pitched explicitly at community groups rather than individual traders.

Burnham framed the announcement as a test of how economic success is judged. Asking whether shops were opening or shutters coming down, and whether a place felt like it was "moving forward or being left behind", he argued that the new funding would "put power back into the hands of locals who know their area best." The language is deliberately local: a reference to the high street as the unit of measurement for growth, rather than aggregate national figures.

Communities Secretary Angela Rayner said the scheme showed the government's determination to see boarded-up buildings "that have been left to rack and ruin" turned once more into places residents are proud to visit. First Secretary of State Louise Haigh went further on the political dimension, saying the investment would give local people the resources they need to drive change — "this is what devolution means in practice".

The money is drawn from funding earmarked by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government specifically for high street support and regeneration, meaning it is being channelled through an existing spending line rather than newly created. That detail matters for scrutiny: the politics of the announcement rest on how quickly the cash reaches councils, landlords and community groups, and on whether the size of individual grants is enough to bring structurally difficult properties back into use.

The conference itself is expected to place affordability at the centre of Burnham's programme, and the high street package is likely to be presented as a practical illustration of that pledge. Labour has suggested the week will combine new policy announcements with a broader look at the government's direction, following a period in which the party's leadership has changed hands.

The announcement also builds on an earlier pledge made by Burnham over the summer, when he said pubs, clubs and social venues would receive 20% cuts in business rates from April. Taken together, the two measures represent the government's most direct offer so far to the hospitality and community leisure sector, which has been among the hardest hit by falling real incomes and rising costs.

The response from the opposition was immediate. Peter Kyle, the business secretary to former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, said Burnham needed to act with "more urgency" to boost growth, with the prime minister arriving in Liverpool for the conference. The Conservatives have put forward their own competing offer, under which business rates would be abolished for thousands of businesses and key community institutions such as post offices, pubs and pharmacies would be protected.

Analysts of the politics of high streets will note the contrast in framing. The government's approach is targeted at empty property and at communities taking direct ownership of premises, while the Tory plan focuses on reducing the tax burden of existing businesses. Neither is presented as a comprehensive answer to the wider pressures on town centres, and both arrive with the same unresolved question: whether public money can reverse vacancy at a time when the underlying economics of small retail and hospitality remain difficult.

Practical questions also remain unanswered in the detail announced. The scheme's success will depend on how the derelict buildings fund assesses applications, whether communities have the capacity and skills to run acquired venues as co-operatives, and how quickly money intended for buildings "at risk of closure" is disbursed. The £20m aimed at subletting empty units is the smallest of the four strands, but it is also the most directly targeted at bringing unlettable space back into commercial use.

For Burnham, the stakes are personal as well as political. Delivering a visible, tangible improvement on high streets — rather than a policy that must be measured over years — would give his first conference as prime minister an easy demonstration of delivery. The contrast with the party's previous period in opposition, and with a Conservative conference message focused on abolishing business rates, will set the tone for a conference built around the cost of living and the future of the places people live.