Transparency data

Future High Streets Fund: accounting officer assessment

Updated 6 March 2024

Background and Context

The Future High Streets Fund (FHSF) was launched in December 2018 with £675 million confirmed in Budget 2018. This was increased to £1 billion in July 2019.  £107 million of this budget was allocated to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport to support the regeneration of heritage high streets.

FHSF, managed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) formerly MHCLG, seeks to renew and reshape town centres and high streets in a way that drives growth, improves experience, and ensures future sustainability. The Prospectus outlined two competitive rounds, but recognising the range and quality of proposals, ministers chose to commit all funding in round one. Places that had shown interest in similar funding were pointed to the future Towns Fund competition, which was ultimately delivered as part of the Levelling Up Fund.

The competition was run in two stages – expression of interest (EOI) and full business case. The department received 328 EOIs in March 2019 and assessed those EOIs as per the supplementary guidance. Ministers’ decisions followed the criteria in the Prospectus.

On 5 July 2019, the Minister for High Streets, Jake Berry, announced that 51 places had been successful in progressing to the business case development phase of the fund. Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on 27 July 2019 of a £3.6 billion Towns Fund, an additional £325 million was allocated to FHSF bringing its budget up to £1 billion. This allowed the department to invite an additional 50 places to develop full business cases.

On 26 December 2020, the Communities Secretary announced fifteen places that would be awarded the full amount they had requested, totalling £255 million. A further 57 areas were made a provisional offer of a proportion of their initial ask, totalling £576 million. They were each offered £5k to support the development of updated proposals. The department then assessed those revised proposals to ensure they still met gateway criteria, strategic fit, VfM and deliverability.

On 19 May 2021, the former Communities Secretary, Robert Jenrick, confirmed funding for those 57 places, bringing the total capital funding awarded through the programme to £831 million across 72 places.

Assessment against the Accounting Officer Standards

Regularity

The programme does not require any new legislation. Section 31 of the Local Government Finance Act, 2003 is being used to make payments to Local Authorities. As per the legislation, HMT consent was sought prior to making capital payments. The DLUHC awards to local authorities are in line with available budget and HMT approval was obtained prior to making the Boxing Day announcement.

Overall assessment

My assessment is that the regularity test is satisfied.

Propriety

The programme meets the standards governing the use of public funds and meets the requirements in Managing public money. The programme included arrangements for the allocation of capacity funding to assist local authority applicants develop high quality bids. At different stages of the programme scores were moderated to ensure consistency.

It should be noted that Minister Tolhurst recused herself from decision-making at the business case stage as Chatham Town Centre was in her constituency of Rochester and Strood.

A published list of successful and unsuccessful places is available

Overall assessment

My assessment is that the propriety test is satisfied.

Value for Money

Value for money (VfM) considerations were embedded in the FHSF assessment and decision-making frameworks, advising that the FHSF value for money assessment considered monetised and non-monetised benefits and that those assessments were subject to moderation.  To ensure value for money, business cases were initially assessed against four pass/ fail gateway criteria.  If a business case did not meet any one of these criteria it was deemed to be ineligible for funding and was not assessed further by the department. Business cases were assessed against the following pass / fail gateway criteria:

• Evidence of market failure
• Evidence that projects deliver investment of the kind described in the FHSF prospectus
• Evidence of co-funding
• Meets the FHSF spending timetable and deliverable by March 2024

Business cases were also assessed against the three main areas of value for money, deliverability of proposals and strategic fit with the objectives of the Fund.  This assessment was made in accordance with HM Treasury Green Book.

VfM has been considered at the programme and projects levels as well as part of ministerial decision-making when awarding funds.

To further safeguard value for money, reporting and evaluation requirements placed on grant recipients will help monitor delivery of expected outputs and outcomes. Further details on this are set out in the published Towns Fund Monitoring & Evaluation Strategy

Overall assessment

My assessment is that the VfM test is satisfied.

Feasibility

The deliverability of projects has been formally assessed and delivery risks will be managed through monitoring arrangements, which includes reporting to a SRO-led delivery board. The SRO is accountable to the Director General for the Stronger Places Group, who in turn reports to the Accounting Officer.

Overall assessment

My assessment is that the feasibility test is satisfied.

Conclusion

The FHSF programme is a robust and effective use of public resources.

As the accounting officer, I considered the FHSF assessment on 23 December 2020 and approved it.

I have prepared this summary to set out the key points which informed my decision. If any of these factors change materially during the lifetime of this project, I undertake to prepare a revised summary, setting out my assessment of them.

This summary will be published on the government’s website (GOV.UK). Copies will be deposited in the Library of the House of Commons; and sent to the Comptroller and Auditor General and Treasury Officer of Accounts.

Jeremy Pocklington

6 July 2022