Daventry bid for High Street funding from £675m government pot was ‘unsuccessful’

The district council had submitted a bid to the government’s Future High Streets fund, which is a £675million pot of money that will be shared out to local authorities, aimed at supporting local areas to prepare long-term strategies for their high streets and town centres.

Although nearby Northampton has made it through the first round of bids, Daventry has failed to make the shortlist, according to cabinet member for regeneration Councillor David James.

Speaking at the scrutiny and improvement committee meeting last Tuesday (July 16), he said: “There is some bad news. The Future High Streets Fund could have provided a bit of money, but it doesn’t look like Daventry District Council has been successful in the first round, although Northampton has been shortlisted.”

Asked why Daventry hadn’t made the cut, executive director for resources Tony Gillet told councillors: “The bids were heavily oversubscribed, so I don’t think we should read too much into not being successful.”

Councillor James indicated in his presentation that the council would try their luck again and submit a bid for the second round of the Future High Streets fund.

He added that the authority was also hoping for better luck with a bid it had submitted on July 12 to Historic England for part its Heritage Action Zone funding .

The new £44 million fund was launched in May and allows Historic England to work with partners to find new ways to champion and revive historic high streets.

Councillor James added: “We have put this heritage bid in, but it’s only a small amount of money. It’s circa £300,000, which is small in terms of the figures we have been talking about.”