MP claims high street fund is “misallocated” as Rochdale misses out

Empty shops on Drake Street

Rochdale’s MP, Simon Danczuk, has accused the government of “having no idea of what is going on in town centres” after Rochdale missed out on Government funding to help towns fill their empty shops.

The Department for Communities and Local Government has named 100 towns across the country that will receive a £100,000 taxpayer funded grant to help fill their empty shops.

The towns include neighbouring Oldham, Rossendale, Calderdale and Bolton.

The High Street Innovation Fund Grant is part of a response to the Mary Portas Review. The £10 million of taxpayers money is said to be focused on bringing empty shops back into use but Mr Danczuk claims that the system in which the money is being allocated is “flawed.”

In a post on Twitter, Mr Danczuk, said: “Government's High Street Fund has been misallocated. One local authority that received 100k only has two empty shops!”

The Telegraph reported that Mr Danczuk claims to have seen an email from the Department for Communities and Local Government admitting that the Government has no figures for empty shops on high streets across the UK. But that it has allocated the money based on all empty non-domestic buildings across a local authority area, including offices, business parks and factories.

He said: “This just shows the Government has no idea of what’s going on in town centres. Nearly forty per cent of local authorities awarded money have a less than national average empty shops rate."

He added that his constituency of Rochdale has 45 empty shops in the town centre and “didn’t get a penny”.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said they stood firmly by their methodology, saying: "Business rates data is by far the most accurate at reflecting the number of empty business premises, and is provided by councils themselves. To use any other data would be to short-change councils whose high streets face the greatest challenges and who were worst affected by last year's riots,” The Telegraph reported.

Rochdale has submitted a bid to be a Portas Pilot which could see them receive a share of a £1million pot. Twelve towns will be awarded Portas Pilot status, the lucky towns will be named in May.