Recommendation 156

Witnesses criticised the previous Government’s programmes for focusing on capital funding support and argued that greater access to revenue funding would have been useful. Brighton & Hove City Council stated that revenue-funded initiatives “typically have a quicker impact on high street vitality than large capital investments” and the emphasis on capital funding had restricted the benefits for high streets. 307 The Institute of Place Management told the Committee that “capital funding is just one aspect of place revitalisation and should sit alongside other measures”. 308 Power to Change recommended flexibility between capital and revenue funding to allow local authority expenditure on community-endorsed projects rather than large scale capital projects which may not have local community support. 309