The Towns Fund is helping regeneration on England’s high streets

New evaluation finds early evidence that regeneration funding is improving high street activity, strengthening pride in place and supporting long-term local growth.

A major independent evaluation led by Frontier Economics in partnership with BMG Research has found encouraging early evidence that the Towns Fund is helping to revitalise high streets, strengthen local communities and support economic regeneration across England. The evaluation also identifies practical lessons that can help shape future place-based investment programmes.

Commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), the evaluation brings together evidence from the programme's process, impact and value for money assessments. It is the most comprehensive assessment of the Towns Fund to date, covering both the Town Deals and the Future High Streets Fund which combined exceed £3bn in funding.

Early evidence of positive impacts

While many projects have only recently been completed, the evaluation identifies several encouraging early outcomes.

The analysis found that high streets receiving Future High Streets Fund investment experienced a 6.7% increase in footfall compared with similar locations that did not receive funding. The evaluation also found evidence that Town Deal-funded towns saw growth in the number of businesses relative to similar non-funded towns.

Case study evidence showed improvements in pride in place, particularly where regeneration projects created visible improvements in town centres and where local communities had been actively involved throughout project design and delivery. Across the case study areas, pride in place increased by an average of 3.8 percentage points. There was no change in pride in place across England or the wider regions of the case study areas over the same period.

Increased participation in sports centres, libraries and health facilities funded through the programme was also found, suggesting early improvements in wellbeing and stronger use of community assets.

Lessons for future regeneration programmes

Alongside assessing impacts, the evaluation highlights practical lessons for designing and delivering future place-based investment.

The report finds that early investment in local authority capacity, meaningful community engagement and flexible programme management all contributed to successful delivery. It also recommends more consistent monitoring of programme outcomes and appraisal approaches that better reflect place-based benefits such as pride in place and town centre vitality.

Although many long-term impacts will take several more years to emerge, the evaluation concludes that the Towns Fund is on track to deliver benefits that exceed its costs. 

This work reflects Frontier's expertise in combining robust economic analysis with practical policy evaluation to help governments understand what works and improve future decision-making.

Click here to read the ‘Towns Fund Evaluation Final Report’