North East nets £13m for derelict building renewal
Government committed £125m to 60 local authorities across England to help bring long-term vacant structures back into use in yesterday’s Budget.
Part of the wider Hope on the High Street Strategy, the Derelict Buildings Fund will provide local authorities with funding to acquire long-vacant buildings, overcome development barriers, close viability gaps, or transfer ownerships to those invested in the building’s future.
The programme will run from now until 2030, with the first tranche of funding to be deployed in spring, after the chosen local authorities craft a longlist of buildings to support and viable rejuvenation projects for them.
The 60 local authorities were chosen due to high levels of employment deprivation, with the amounts they are allocated – between £1m and £3m – selected based on the size of their population. The largest cities within mayoral strategic authorities were not eligible
Buildings that could be eligible for the programme will be ones whose restoration would visibly change perceptions of decline on high streets. They could include shops, offices, department stores, heritage buildings, cinemas, theatres, pubs, or former places of worship.
In the North East, seven local authorities will benefit from the DBF. County Durham received the most with £3m, followed by Sunderland with £2.71m. You can see the full list of fund awards for the North East below.
- County Durham — £3.00m
- Darlington — £1.07m
- Gateshead — £1.91m
- Hartlepool — £1.00m
- South Tyneside — £1.43m
- Stockton-on-Tees — £1.96m
- Sunderland — £2.71m
