Burnham puts £210m behind high street revival as Labour conference opens in Liverpool

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged £210m to revive the UK's struggling high streets, vowing to return empty shops and shuttered venues to public use as his government prepares for its first Labour Party conference as prime minister.

The funding is drawn from money already earmarked by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for high street support and regeneration, and is aimed at converting disused space into what Burnham described as "community hubs, health centres, shared workspaces, cafés and the local services that people actually want to see."

The announcement comes as Burnham arrives in Liverpool for the annual party gathering, where he is expected to make affordability the central theme of his first conference speech as leader of the party in government. High street regeneration fits neatly within that framing, positioning the prime minister as a defender of the shops, pubs and social venues that anchor town centres and small communities.

Breaking down the package, the largest element is a £125m derelict buildings fund, designed to bring mothballed and dilapidated properties back into use. An additional £85m pot will allow communities to acquire and repurpose neglected spaces, with pubs, clubs and shops specifically cited as targets for community buyouts. A further £65m has been allocated to support businesses and buildings judged to be at immediate risk of closure, while £20m will help communities establish co-operative businesses and sublet units that stand empty.

Burnham framed the intervention as a direct response to how voters judge economic success in their everyday surroundings. "People don't measure growth by looking at a spreadsheet," he said. "They measure it by looking at their local high street — are shops opening or are the shutters down? Does the place feel like it's moving forward or being left behind?" The prime minister added that the funding would "help put power back into the hands of locals who know their area best."

Communities Secretary Angela Rayner said the scheme demonstrated a government willing to see "boarded-up buildings that have been left to rack and ruin turned into places people are proud to visit again." First Secretary of State Louise Haigh linked the money to the government's devolution agenda, arguing it would equip local people with the resources to drive change themselves. "This is what devolution means in practice," she said.

The pledge follows Burnham's summer announcement that pubs, clubs and social venues would receive a 20% cut in business rates from April. Taken together, the rate relief and the regeneration fund represent a two-pronged approach to the high street crisis: reducing the fixed costs facing hospitality businesses that remain open, while targeting capital and ownership at the empty properties that have been left behind.

The timing has drawn criticism from the opposition. Peter Kyle, business secretary to former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, said Burnham needed to move with "more urgency" to boost growth. The Conservatives have set out their own competing vision, promising to abolish business rates for thousands of businesses and to "defend key pillars of the community such as post offices, pubs and pharmacies."

Analysts of high street decline point to a familiar pattern behind the policy. The shift of spending towards online retail, rising costs and the loss of anchor tenants in town centres have left large numbers of units vacant, and local authorities in England have frequently lacked the cash to buy, repair and repurpose those properties. Community buyouts have been tried in places such as pubs and shops, but funding has typically been pieced together from council budgets, community shares and small grants.

For councils, a dedicated central fund could accelerate acquisitions that were previously unaffordable, particularly in towns where commercial property values have fallen sharply. The co-operative element offers a route for residents to keep essential services running, while the business rate relief promised in the summer could ease pressure on the operators most at risk.

Questions remain about how quickly the money can reach the communities intended to benefit. High street regeneration schemes typically depend on local authorities being able to identify viable properties, secure planning consents and match funding, and areas with the fewest surviving businesses are often those with the least administrative capacity. The independent infrastructure and planning challenges involved in returning buildings to use also mean the fund's impact may not be visible for several years.

Sceptics will also want evidence that the funding addresses the structural causes of vacancy rather than simply renovating empty units. Buildings converted into cafés, health centres and workspaces still need customers and operating budgets, and without sustained footfall the visible improvement in a high street may be short-lived.

Ahead of the conference, the government has also faced criticism over the pace of economic delivery, with opposition figures arguing that announcements on regeneration do not substitute for wider action on growth, investment and household costs. Burnham's own framing — that people judge the economy by what they see on their local high street — is likely to dominate his conference appearances in Liverpool.

The weekend gathering will be the prime minister's first as Labour leader, with party members expected to focus on what a Labour government means for everyday household budgets. The high street package provides a tangible early deliverable to point to, and a reminder that the government wants voters to associate it with visible, local improvements rather than abstract economic statistics.