Greater Manchester's £20m High Streets Fund — What It Means For Independent Businesses

Greater Manchester's £20m High Streets Fund — What It Means For Independent Businesses

Greater Manchester's new Mayor, Bev Craig, kicked off her second week in the job with a promise: £20 million to breathe life back into the region's high streets.

The Good Growth High Streets Fund was announced on 10 August in Middleton, alongside a call for local businesses, property experts, and passionate residents to join a new High Streets Taskforce that will help shape how the money gets used.

If you run an independent business in Greater Manchester, here's what you actually need to know — what's confirmed, what's still to come, and how to get involved.

What's Actually Been Announced

The headline number is £20 million — the Good Growth High Streets Fund, made available to local businesses, business groups, and voluntary and community organisations across Greater Manchester. The money will primarily back ideas that can make a real difference to local economic growth and help restore pride on the high street.

The fund forms part of a wider campaign called Our High Streets, which will run throughout Bev Craig's first term as Mayor. It's designed to make sure the benefits of Greater Manchester's economic growth over the past decade — growth that has reportedly outpaced every other UK city-region — are actually felt on the ground, on the streets people shop, work, and live on.

The money comes from a real, existing source: the £2bn GMCA Good Growth Fund, backed by the combined authority's settlement with national government, the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, and the National Wealth Fund. This isn't a vague promise — it's drawing on funding mechanisms that already exist.

What's Not Confirmed Yet

Applications for the £20m fund are expected to open later this year. As of now, there's no live application process, no published criteria, and no confirmed maximum award per applicant.

What is open right now is something slightly different: the High Streets Taskforce. Mayor Craig is actively seeking members — local traders, business experts, property professionals, and residents who care about where they live — to help design the policy behind how the fund gets used and how Greater Manchester approaches high street revival more broadly.

In her own words: "I want my high streets taskforce to set the policy around not just how the fund is used, but how Greater Manchester and local councils approach actually breathing life back into the high streets."

Why This Matters — Beyond the Money

Andrew Lord runs Lords of Middleton, a family butchers that's been trading since 1893. His shop was one of those Bev Craig visited on the day the fund was announced. That's the kind of business this fund is aimed at — not hypothetical, not abstract, but real independents who've weathered generations of change and are still fighting for their high street today.

The Mayor's own words on why this matters: high streets need to be, in her description, bright, welcoming and safe, with a healthy mix of shops and services that bring people in — places where people want to spend their time and money, and keep coming back.

That's not just a funding announcement. It's a recognition that Greater Manchester's high streets have been struggling with changing shopping habits for years, and that too many town centres don't currently have the mix of shops and services local people actually want.

This is exactly the gap Localito exists to help close.

How to Get Involved Right Now

Two separate things are happening, and it's worth understanding the difference:

•         The High Streets Taskforce — open for expressions of interest now. If you're a local trader, business owner, or simply passionate about your high street, you can email GMCAEconomy@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk to get involved.

•         The £20m Good Growth High Streets Fund — not yet open. Applications are expected later this year. Worth watching this space, but there's nothing to formally apply for just yet.

Getting involved with the Taskforce now, even before the fund opens, is a genuine opportunity to help shape how that £20 million actually gets spent — rather than waiting to react once the criteria are already set.

Where Localito Fits In

We've already put Localito's name forward to the Taskforce. Not because we think we have all the answers, but because we've spent the last seven months doing exactly what this fund is trying to encourage — building practical, working infrastructure that helps independent businesses compete, without needing to become a chain to survive.

395+ independent businesses across Greater Manchester are already on Localito. We've run high-street activations, including our Amazon Receipt Swap on Manchester Day. We believe platforms like ours are part of what "good growth" on the high street can actually look like — not just funding for physical improvements, but the digital infrastructure that helps independents reach customers who'd otherwise default to Amazon.

Whatever role Localito ends up playing in this, the announcement itself is worth celebrating. It's rare to see this level of political attention and real financial backing pointed directly at the businesses that make Greater Manchester's high streets worth visiting in the first place.

The Bottom Line

£20 million. A new Taskforce actively recruiting members. A Mayor publicly backing independent businesses in her first weeks in office. This is a genuinely significant moment for Greater Manchester's high streets — and it's still early enough that local businesses can help shape what happens next, rather than just wait to see what's decided for them.

If you run an independent business in Greater Manchester, this is worth your attention. Email the Taskforce. Watch for the fund opening. And in the meantime — Localito is here, ready, for exactly this kind of moment.

Explore Localito — localito.com

Localito is Greater Manchester's only independents-only marketplace. 395+ independent businesses. Zero chains. Shop local, earn cashback, keep Manchester brilliant.

Published: August 2026