Communities to seize control over derelict pubs and block gambling and vape shops

Communities will be handed unprecedented new powers to seize boarded shops, save derelict pubs and block gambling and vape shops on their high street. 

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed said:

“When people step out of their front doors, they know their communities are struggling. They see shuttered pubs, fading high streets and their local areas in decline.  

“Yes, communities have been stretched – but they haven’t given up. They’re working hard to make things better, and we’re backing them.  

“The Government is putting power into their hands so local people decide how best to restore pride in their neighbourhoods, not us in Westminster.  

“That’s what real patriotism looks like: building up our communities and choosing renewal over division.”

The nationwide Pride in Place programme – which will be unveiled by the Prime Minister (Thursday, 25 September) – will deliver a record investment and support over 330 communities in total. It will tackle deep-rooted deprivation and regional inequality through wide-ranging action, including:

• Community Right to Buy: handing local people the power to buy beloved assets, helping them turn around derelict pubs, create new parks and regenerate treasured spaces in the heart of their communities.  
• Compulsory Purchase powers: allowing communities in England to acquire assets and eyesores like boarded up shops and derelict abandoned businesses, allowing new local start-ups to thrive. For larger sites – like disused department stores or abandoned office blocks – it could even see new health centres opening up, or local housing to help reach our target of 1.5 million homes. 
• Power to block unwanted shops: empowering councils in England to say no to new betting shops, vapes stores and fake barbers.  
• Giving residents the power: we will only approve spending if community groups, local organisations and social clubs have been included in decisions on how the money should be spent – putting real power in local hands and giving them a proper say over their community.

The Prime Minister is expected to say that local people will “finally have the powers to put things right after years of decline – an inheritance the government is determined to fix through the Plan for Change.”   

“This is about choosing a future where communities are empowered to come together, rather than be divided, and where renewal is chosen over decline. 
Prime Minister Keir Starmer will unveil the Pride in Place programme – an unprecedented programme backed by record funding – that lets local people call the shots on where and how money is spent in their communities, restoring local pride and helping them reclaim their streets.  

“For far too long, communities have been dictated to rather than in control of their own destiny. This week marks a new way of governing. By choosing renewal over decline, this government is delivering lasting change working people will feel.”