Today, the Mayor of London has announced that Purley is one of the select number of Exemplar projects, chosen from an initial list of well over 100 entries, which will receive funding to deliver a plan for the High Streets for All Challenge.
The High Streets for All Challenge is a call for local high street partnerships to develop innovative high street recovery strategies to boost local economic activity, cultural and civic renewal and yield a wider public value.
Over the past few months, Purley Business Improvement District (BID) has worked with several key partners that make up the Purley Panel to create a proposal on making improvements to Purley, focusing on the high street. Purley has fought off competition from throughout all London Boroughs and is one of around 30 projects that has been designated as Exemplar.
This means that the Purley Panel will receive a seed grant to work on the foundations of a project plan to regenerate Purley.
If the project plan creates a compelling case, it could provide the town with the opportunity to receive a grant of up to £500k to deliver the solution. This would clearly be transformational for Purley.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:“The shops, cafes and other businesses on London’s local high streets have been the heartbeat of our economy, but they’ve been hit incredibly hard by the COVID pandemic. As we start to recover, we need to be bold and innovative to ensure our high streets can survive as diverse, bustling centres of our capital’s economy.
“I’m pleased to be able to announce new funding for projects all across the capital that are leading the way coming up with solutions for the future of our high streets. Whether it’s new ideas for shared working space, bringing old offices back into use or providing space for exciting cultural activities, these ideas will stimulate economic activity and also enrich social and cultural life in our local communities.
“I’m doing all I can to encourage Londoners to safely return to our high streets, but these ongoing partnerships with councils and businesses across the capital will be vital for guaranteeing their future growth and prosperity.”
The Purley BID has worked very closely with numerous key stakeholders in Purley that make up the Purley Panel. This includes representatives from The Rotary Purley, the churches, Residents Associations, youth project and other local individuals. The Purley Panel also includes a company called Urban Symbiotics which has been instrumental in developing the plan and being awarded the initial grant.
Stephanie Edwards Co-Founding Director of Urban Symbiotics said: “The Purley Panel has taken feedback from community engagement surveys and several focus groups to look at what people would like to see in the high street. Also making sure that any plans moving forward are representative of the growing and changing demographics of the area.”
Simon Cripps, CEO at Purley BID, said: “We are incredibly proud of what the Purley Panel has achieved, a lot of hard work has produced a terrific plan. We can have confidence this will lead to a strong case for the final stage funding and a new breath of life into the area. Huge thanks to all those involved in the Purley Panel and the wider community for their interest in this project.”
The final announcement of the few schemes that will receive the full funding to deliver their projects will not be known until later this year. In the meantime, the Purley Panel will continue to work on creating a compelling plan to regenerate Purley.