Towns will bid for new Mary Portas cash grants

Towns which missed out on a £100,000 scheme to revive ailing high streets can apply for a new £10,000 support project – which has been slammed for being a "drop in the ocean" by a Midlands MP.

Shop landlords, traders and council representatives who form a partnership will receive the payout if MPs champion their cause. The scheme is open to those who lost out the Portas Pilots scheme earlier this year.

Retail guru Mary Portas devised the separate programme to boost flagging high streets and town centres with a £100,000 grant and specialist help.

Only 27 areas in the country – including Wolverhampton – were successful with bids in May and July to become one of the so called pilots areas.

Bilston, West Bromwich, Bearwood, Walsall and Dudley tabled unsuccessful applications to the government to take part in the programme.

The latest scheme, backed by local government minister Grant Shapps, will aim to boost areas desperate for support but which unsuccessfully applied for cash.

A £10,000 cash grant along with advice and support nwill be provided.

However Dudley North MP Ian Austin today claimed the latest scheme did not go far enough to help towns during the tough trading conditions.

"Any support is welcome but £10,000 is a drop in the ocean looking at the scale of the task ahead of us," he said.

"We need a government that takes problems like that of Dudley and others seriously and provide proper help and support."

Full details of the project, known as Town Team Partners, including the additional incentives on offer will be unveiled in London tomorrow.