In May 2019, Historic England launched a new £44 million fund to enable them to work with partners to find new ways to champion and revive historic high streets through the High Streets Heritage Action Zones (HSHAZ) scheme.
HSHAZ will support sustainable economic and cultural growth on and around high streets and restore and enhance local historic character, making the high street an attractive, engaging and vibrant place for people to live, work and play. HSHAZ will do this through physical works to buildings, including repair, reinstatement of lost features and conversion to new uses including residential.
Applicants could apply for a grant of between £250,000 and £2 million to set up a four-year partnership beginning April 2020.
Over the weekend, it was announced that 69 town have been put through to a project design phase. A map showing the successful towns can be found on the Historic England website (scroll down to the centre of the page) while more information about the programme can be found HERE.
The full list of successful towns is:
South West:
o Chard
o Cullompton
o Gloucester
o Keynsham
o Midsomer Norton
o Plymouth
o Poole
o Redruth
o Tewkesbury, and
o Weston-Super-Mare.
Midlands:
o Brierley Hill
o Buxton
o Coventry
o Grantham
o Hinckley
o Kettering Town Centre
o Leicester
o Leominster
o Lincoln
o Newark-on-Trent Town Centre
o Oswestry
o Stoke on Trent, and
o Wednesbury Town Centre.
London and the South East:
o Chatham Intra
o Croydon
o Gosport
o Harlesden
o Hastings
o Newport
o Ramsgate
o Reading
o Ryde
o Tottenham
o Tower Hamlets, and
o Woolwich.
East of England:
o Bedford
o Dunstable
o Great Yarmouth
o King’s Lynn
o Lincoln
o Lowestoft
o North Walsham, and
o Swaffham.
North West:
o Bacup, Rossendale
o Barrow in Furness
o Blackpool
o Burnley
o Chester
o Fleetwood
o Kirkham
o Lancaster
o Maryport, Cumbria
o Ormskirk
o Prescot
o Stalybridge
o Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, and
o Wigan Town Centre.
North East & Yorkshire:
o Barnsley
o Hexham
o Huddersfield
o Hull
o Leeds
o Middlesbrough
o North Shields
o Northallerton
o Scarborough CA, Castle ward
o Selby Town Centre
o Skipton
o Sowerby Bridge, and
o Wakefield.
Image: Cullompton high street, one of the 10 town centres in
South West England that has progressed to the project design
phase of the High Streets Heritage Action Zone programme.