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£24 million for town centres across Wales
The Welsh Government has announced an additional £24 million package of support to revitalise Wales’ town centres.
Since 2015, the Welsh Government’s Town Centre Loans programme has funded local authorities to support landlords to redevelop empty and under-utilised properties.
Under this round of funding, local authorities can act directly and use their share of the £18.4 million to step in to buy and redevelop properties to support the diversification of our town centres by encouraging more sustainable uses for empty sites and premises, such as residential, leisure and for key services.
As examples, Swansea City and County Council is set to receive £6 million in funding to bring back into use long-term empty buildings within the city and Powys County Council will receive £2 million to redevelop the former livestock market in Llanidloes.
The Welsh Government has also pledged £3.34 million to help high street businesses grow and embrace innovative digital technology that will help their business thrive as part of the Year of SMART Towns. This includes utilising data to help firms better understand their customer base and trends which will support businesses in their future planning and marketing activities.
An additional £3 million will be used to incentivise more North Wales businesses to locate in town centres in Wrexham, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay and Bangor.
Hannah Blythyn, Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government, said: “As part of our Transforming Towns approach, we have invested over £40 million of Town Centre Loans funding over this Senedd term, enabling the redevelopment and occupation of many town centre buildings across Wales. I look forward to seeing more homes, offices and businesses developing thanks to the property improvements we will see as a result of this latest round of funding.”
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