The Government recently ran a call for evidence on youth vaping which closed on 6 June 2023. This will identify opportunities to reduce the number of children accessing and using vaping products and explore where the Government can go further. We will respond later this year.

High Street Rental Auctions will seek to increase cooperation between Landlords to make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including SMEs and community groups

Rental rates reflecting market value achieved through auction will allow a broad spectrum of tenants to occupy town centre properties. In turn this will increase vitality, footfall, pride in place and business growth and encourage diverse mixed-use high streets

We are continuing our engagement with the sector, including with SME representatives, to ensure the process is accessible for all parties and plan to publish further guidance.

On Wednesday 11 May the Department introduced the Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill (LURB) into Parliament. This new legislation will play an important role in reviving our high streets by introducing High Street Rental Auctions (HSRAs). HSRAs will empower places to tackle decline by bringing vacant units back into use and will seek to increase cooperation between landlords and local authorities, and to make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including SMEs, local businesses and community groups.

The measure will focus on all commercial property in town centres and on high streets, for the purpose of incentivising commercial uses, and will exclude residential, industrial and warehousing. It is short-term measure in which landlords will be receiving rents and service charges throughout the lease period and will retain their property, including rights to forfeiture.

A standardised lease will be developed and used to ensure consistency and fairness, and the auction process will include safeguards for landlords to be able to feed into the process. There are some important processes and procedures that we need to develop in tandem with the passage of legislation, including how the auction process itself will run, how landlords can input into the terms of the standardised lease including any break clauses. We will also consider how larger unoccupied units can be rented out and more crucially how we can ensure HSRAs are accessible to start-ups, community groups and local businesses.

Throughout this process we have spoken to stakeholders (landlords, tenants, local authorities, community organisations) and reviewed available data at regular intervals. We will continue to work with the industry during bill passage to ensure that any conditions are appropriate for the parties and the market more broadly. This engagement will help inform secondary legislation.

By introducing this measure, Government is continuing to empower councils to take a proactive and ambitious approach to placemaking, supporting them to feel more confident in how they approach the challenges of vacant property on the high street. Together with the other tools available to local authorities, this will help create attractive and lively high streets, with increased footfall and activity which attracts people and businesses, increases pride in place and avoids the long-term presence of vacancies.

On Wednesday 11 May the Department introduced the Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill (LURB) into Parliament. This new legislation will play an important role in reviving our high streets by introducing High Street Rental Auctions (HSRAs). HSRAs will empower places to tackle decline by bringing vacant units back into use and will seek to increase cooperation between landlords and local authorities, and to make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including SMEs, local businesses and community groups.

The measure will focus on all commercial property in town centres and on high streets, for the purpose of incentivising commercial uses, and will exclude residential, industrial and warehousing. It is short-term measure in which landlords will be receiving rents and service charges throughout the lease period and will retain their property, including rights to forfeiture.

A standardised lease will be developed and used to ensure consistency and fairness, and the auction process will include safeguards for landlords to be able to feed into the process. There are some important processes and procedures that we need to develop in tandem with the passage of legislation, including how the auction process itself will run, how landlords can input into the terms of the standardised lease including any break clauses. We will also consider how larger unoccupied units can be rented out and more crucially how we can ensure HSRAs are accessible to start-ups, community groups and local businesses.

Throughout this process we have spoken to stakeholders (landlords, tenants, local authorities, community organisations) and reviewed available data at regular intervals. We will continue to work with the industry during bill passage to ensure that any conditions are appropriate for the parties and the market more broadly. This engagement will help inform secondary legislation.

By introducing this measure, Government is continuing to empower councils to take a proactive and ambitious approach to placemaking, supporting them to feel more confident in how they approach the challenges of vacant property on the high street. Together with the other tools available to local authorities, this will help create attractive and lively high streets, with increased footfall and activity which attracts people and businesses, increases pride in place and avoids the long-term presence of vacancies.

On Wednesday 11 May the Department introduced the Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill (LURB) into Parliament. This new legislation will play an important role in reviving our high streets by introducing High Street Rental Auctions (HSRAs). HSRAs will empower places to tackle decline by bringing vacant units back into use and will seek to increase cooperation between landlords and local authorities, and to make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including SMEs, local businesses and community groups.

The measure will focus on all commercial property in town centres and on high streets, for the purpose of incentivising commercial uses, and will exclude residential, industrial and warehousing. It is short-term measure in which landlords will be receiving rents and service charges throughout the lease period and will retain their property, including rights to forfeiture.

A standardised lease will be developed and used to ensure consistency and fairness, and the auction process will include safeguards for landlords to be able to feed into the process. There are some important processes and procedures that we need to develop in tandem with the passage of legislation, including how the auction process itself will run, how landlords can input into the terms of the standardised lease including any break clauses. We will also consider how larger unoccupied units can be rented out and more crucially how we can ensure HSRAs are accessible to start-ups, community groups and local businesses.

Throughout this process we have spoken to stakeholders (landlords, tenants, local authorities, community organisations) and reviewed available data at regular intervals. We will continue to work with the industry during bill passage to ensure that any conditions are appropriate for the parties and the market more broadly. This engagement will help inform secondary legislation.

By introducing this measure, Government is continuing to empower councils to take a proactive and ambitious approach to placemaking, supporting them to feel more confident in how they approach the challenges of vacant property on the high street. Together with the other tools available to local authorities, this will help create attractive and lively high streets, with increased footfall and activity which attracts people and businesses, increases pride in place and avoids the long-term presence of vacancies.

On Wednesday 11 May the Department introduced the Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill (LURB) into Parliament. This new legislation will play an important role in reviving our high streets by introducing High Street Rental Auctions (HSRAs). HSRAs will empower places to tackle decline by bringing vacant units back into use and will seek to increase cooperation between landlords and local authorities, and to make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including SMEs, local businesses and community groups.

The measure will focus on all commercial property in town centres and on high streets, for the purpose of incentivising commercial uses, and will exclude residential, industrial and warehousing. It is short-term measure in which landlords will be receiving rents and service charges throughout the lease period and will retain their property, including rights to forfeiture.

A standardised lease will be developed and used to ensure consistency and fairness, and the auction process will include safeguards for landlords to be able to feed into the process. There are some important processes and procedures that we need to develop in tandem with the passage of legislation, including how the auction process itself will run, how landlords can input into the terms of the standardised lease including any break clauses. We will also consider how larger unoccupied units can be rented out and more crucially how we can ensure HSRAs are accessible to start-ups, community groups and local businesses.

Throughout this process we have spoken to stakeholders (landlords, tenants, local authorities, community organisations) and reviewed available data at regular intervals. We will continue to work with the industry during bill passage to ensure that any conditions are appropriate for the parties and the market more broadly. This engagement will help inform secondary legislation.

By introducing this measure, Government is continuing to empower councils to take a proactive and ambitious approach to placemaking, supporting them to feel more confident in how they approach the challenges of vacant property on the high street. Together with the other tools available to local authorities, this will help create attractive and lively high streets, with increased footfall and activity which attracts people and businesses, increases pride in place and avoids the long-term presence of vacancies.

On Wednesday 11 May the Department introduced the Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill (LURB) into Parliament. This new legislation will play an important role in reviving our high streets by introducing High Street Rental Auctions (HSRAs). HSRAs will empower places to tackle decline by bringing vacant units back into use and will seek to increase cooperation between landlords and local authorities, and to make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including SMEs, local businesses and community groups.

The measure will focus on all commercial property in town centres and on high streets, for the purpose of incentivising commercial uses, and will exclude residential, industrial and warehousing. It is short-term measure in which landlords will be receiving rents and service charges throughout the lease period and will retain their property, including rights to forfeiture.

A standardised lease will be developed and used to ensure consistency and fairness, and the auction process will include safeguards for landlords to be able to feed into the process. There are some important processes and procedures that we need to develop in tandem with the passage of legislation, including how the auction process itself will run, how landlords can input into the terms of the standardised lease including any break clauses. We will also consider how larger unoccupied units can be rented out and more crucially how we can ensure HSRAs are accessible to start-ups, community groups and local businesses.

Throughout this process we have spoken to stakeholders (landlords, tenants, local authorities, community organisations) and reviewed available data at regular intervals. We will continue to work with the industry during bill passage to ensure that any conditions are appropriate for the parties and the market more broadly. This engagement will help inform secondary legislation.

By introducing this measure, Government is continuing to empower councils to take a proactive and ambitious approach to placemaking, supporting them to feel more confident in how they approach the challenges of vacant property on the high street. Together with the other tools available to local authorities, this will help create attractive and lively high streets, with increased footfall and activity which attracts people and businesses, increases pride in place and avoids the long-term presence of vacancies.

The information to answer this question is not held centrally.

This Government is fully committed to supporting the businesses and communities that make our high streets and town centres successful as the nation responds to the impacts of COVID-19. In July, we published the Build Back Better High Streets strategy which sets out the Government's long-term plan to support the evolution and regeneration of all high streets across every part of the UK into thriving places to work, visit and live.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Department engages regularly at both Ministerial and official level with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on a range of joint issues affecting urban areas, including the recovery of footfall in the retail sector and recovery following the covid-19 pandemic.

The Government is providing support to local leadership with a High Streets Task Force, giving them expert advice to support their high streets and town centres to adapt and thrive. Over five years this is providing hands-on support to local areas to develop data-driven innovative strategies and connect local areas to relevant experts. The Task Force has set up a Sector Leaders Group and a Professional Research and Data Group, who are playing a vital role in supporting the recovery of our local economies by providing intelligence and evidence to support the High Street Tasks Force and Government in its response to the pandemic. The Professional Research and Data Group provides regular data analysis, including footfall trends, on the Task Force website (https://www.highstreetstaskforce.org.uk/).

More broadly, our ambition is to ensure that town and city centres continue to flourish now and in the future. On 15 July, we published the Build Back Better High Streets Strategy, where we committed to continue working with the sector on its long-term strategic needs to ensure that businesses are profitable, resilient, innovative and support local economies in socially and environmentally responsible ways.

The Government also set up the Urban Centre Recovery Task Force last year to consider the impact of covid-19 on our cities and offer recommendations on practical measures that government could take to help cities adapt and take advantage of new opportunities. This includes the permanence of any changes, how to support city economies to adapt and how to take advantage of any opportunities, with a focus on regeneration, repurposing, housing and other relevant areas such as planning.