Mary Portas, the self-styled retail guru, has defended criticism over how the Portas Pilot towns and local authorities that have been awarded funding from the Government have spent the money.
It emerged this morning that local authorities have only spent a fraction of the £10m fund awarded to them to help return empty spaces into shops.
Portas said: “Quelle horreur. Can you imagine what they would say if local authorities had overspent?”
Data from the 72 local authorities that responded to 100 Freedom of Information (FOI) requests showed just £519,363 of the £7.2m High Street Innovation Fund available to them has been spent.
In addition, of those 72 local authorities who responded to the requests 47 have not spent any of the fund.
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