Towns Fund Evaluation: final findings - summary for policymakers
Published 17 July 2026
Applies to England
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Summary for policymakers
The evaluation of the Towns Fund provides evidence that targeted local regeneration funding leads to improvements in pride and place and high street footfall recovery.
Evidence shows that local pride in place improved by 3.8 percentage points in selected case-study-funded towns. This improvement occurred in towns where investments focused on pride in place, projects were visible to the local community, and project design considered residents’ needs and tailored the local context. There was no change in pride in place in England overall over the same period.
In addition, the evaluation found that focused high street regeneration investments led to a stronger recovery from COVID-19. In particular, areas that received funding saw a 6.7% increase in footfall compared with comparator towns.
Evaluation background
The Towns Fund was a multi-billion programme supporting economic regeneration and the renewal of town centres and high streets across the UK. It included Town Deals, which provided £2.35 billion to 101 towns in England (funding 609 projects), and the Future High Streets Fund, which provided over £830 million to 72 high streets across England (funding 254 projects).
This report presents findings from the impact, process, and value for money (VfM) evaluations of the fund. It focuses on short-term impacts and longer-term impact indicators based on emerging evidence from projects completed by May 2025.
Key findings
There was a 3.8 percentage point improvement in pride in place in the case study towns
The 10 towns with case study projects targeting pride in place saw a statistically significant 3.8 percentage-point increase in pride in place following project completion. Projects that resulted in visible changes in the town centre and had strong resident engagement in design and delivery showed greater improvements.
According to the case study evidence, the Towns Fund is a key contributor to these changes. Residents and local stakeholders reported that improvements in the appearance and accessibility of town centres changed the perceptions of funded areas. No change in pride in place occurred nationally or in wider local authorities over the same period (between 2023 and 2025).
Supported high streets experienced a stronger recovery from COVID-19 and saw a 6.7% increase in footfall beyond comparator towns
Towns that received Future High Streets Fund funding experienced a 6.7% increase in footfall compared with similar non-funded towns. This increase contributed to a near-complete recovery from COVID-19, while non-funded towns remained below pre-pandemic levels. In Q3 2025, funded towns reached 97.9% of the monthly footfall in Q3 2019, while non-funded towns were at 91.3% of the monthly footfall in Q3 2019.
Qualitative evidence from 8 Future High Streets Fund case studies exploring changes in footfall suggests that the funding helped drive these changes by improving the appearance and accessibility of high streets. Local stakeholders expect to see further impacts as additional work is completed and the business mix on high streets changes.
The improved footfall should lead to high economic activity on the high streets and in the town more widely. However, it was not possible to assess these longer-term changes in economic activity due to the timing of this evaluation.
Evidence of longer-term impacts is mixed, which may be due to this evaluation taking place before these impacts had time to emerge
Evidence is emerging that longer-term benefits may include business creation, skills development, and improvements in residents’ wellbeing. However, these benefits were not expected to be fully realised in time for this evaluation. These longer-term impacts should be tested 3 to 5 years after all projects are completed, depending on the indicator. In addition, ongoing works in the supported towns might have led to short-term negative effects. This further limits the evaluation’s ability to observe these longer-term impacts.
The evaluation found mixed evidence on improved business creation. For Town Deals, the quasi-experimental analysis estimated that the number of businesses in Town Deals-funded towns has likely increased between 0.9% and 2.4% relative to similar non-funded towns. The statistical significance of these results is sensitive to changes in the model parameters, but all point to a similar positive trend. For Future High Streets Fund towns, the quasi-experimental analysis estimated that the number of businesses decreased by -3.2% and -2.3% relative to similar non-funded towns. This suggests a short-term reduction in the number of businesses relative to the comparator group, which may reflect transitional disruption during delivery rather than longer-term effects.
There have been significant increases in participation in the funded sports and leisure centres, libraries, and health centres included in 5 wellbeing-related case studies. This may support longer-term changes in wellbeing.
Local engagement and expertise appear to be important for larger improvements in project outcomes
The case studies and process evaluation found that the most successful projects considered residents’ needs and the local context. The Towns Fund processes supported this by consulting a diverse group of local stakeholders on the portfolio of projects. This helped projects achieve their overall objectives and generate larger improvements in key outcomes such as footfall, pride in place, and local wellbeing.
Case study projects aimed to meet the specific needs of individual areas, allowing local authorities to design a portfolio of cohesive, related projects. Town Deal Boards supported local consensus and transparency in decision-making. Engagement with local businesses, residents, and key local council stakeholders helped to align projects with local needs.
The Town Deals capacity funding enabled successful planning and supported successful delivery. Since not all local authorities had the expertise or resources to design and deliver the projects, this funding was crucial for developing robust plans and economic business cases.
The Towns Fund is on track to deliver benefits beyond its costs based on an analysis of selected outcomes and completed projects
An assessment of selected short-term outcomes for a subset of towns where projects were completed shows that the fund is on track to break even with its costs. The evidence shows that local investments provide benefits that outweigh the costs, even in the short term. Longer-term impacts, if realised, are likely to deliver greater value to these investments. However, given that the evidence does not cover all funded projects, a wider assessment of funded projects in the future can help ensure all types of projects provide value for money.
The evaluation could not fully monetise the Towns Fund’s impact due to limitations in attributing benefits to the fund and accurately sizing them. Instead, a break-even analysis assessed whether the funds’ impacts could exceed the relevant costs. This analysis focused on short-term outcomes and excluded longer-term benefits.
Future High Streets Fund benefits are likely to exceed its costs within 5 years of the funded project’s completion. The estimated footfall increase generates 1.20 million additional monthly visitor hours. The benefit of this additional footfall is the Gross Value Added (GVA) generated by spending on the high streets. According to ONS statistics, in 2022, 23% of high street spending was associated with GVA. The analysis found that the additional GVA breaks even with the costs within 5 years of the project’s completion, assuming a spend of £26.5 per additional visit hour.
Town Deal projects focused on improving business outcomes are likely to break even on costs within 5 years if the fund leads to a 0.9% annual increase in the number of businesses. The analysis found that the fund is likely to lead to a 0.9% to 2.4% increase, providing strong evidence that it can break even.
Evaluation methodology
This evaluation provides new evidence on the impacts of high-street and town-centre regeneration. The hyper-local geographic analysis used quasi-experimental modelling to estimate the funds’ impact on selected outcomes. Of the funded projects, 20 case studies explored the mechanisms driving changes in outcomes. The case studies include targeted surveys of the immediate surroundings of funded projects, analyses of secondary and project monitoring data, and interviews with over 200 residents, businesses, and council team members.
The quasi-experimental analysis included only projects that were completed on time for this evaluation. These represent only 14.7% of the funded Town Deal projects and 35.1% of the Future High Streets Fund projects. As such, this evaluation provides insights into early, observable impacts. Assessing the impacts from the full portfolio of projects and the longer-term impacts was not feasible within the scope of this evaluation.