A new £400,000 fund has been approved by Glasgow City Council to help improve the look and feel of the city centre and find new uses for vacant property.

The City Centre Improvement Grant Fund will provide awards of up to £20,000 to businesses and organisations who meet the criteria.

Split into two streams, Meantime Use and the Minor Improvement Grant, applications to the fund can be made from 16 September.

The Meantime Use fund has been developed to encourage dialogue between businesses and organisations which are not currently located in the city centre and the owners of vacant properties. It will target key areas such as Sauchiehall Street and Argyle Street to provide vacant ground floor properties with new uses such as pop-up shops, short-term leases and third sector occupation. It is also hoped that recent regulatory changes which have reduced Empty Property Relief may encourage owners to look for tenants.

This part of the fund will be open to independent businesses and other organisations, while owners with vacant/underused properties will also be able to apply for the grant to help them bring their properties up to the required standard for occupation ready for new businesses.

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The Meantime Use Fund creates an opportunity to both improve the range and mix of businesses operating in the city centre and to reactivate areas impacted by changes to retail habits and office demand. The fund aims to deliver temporary new uses across the city centre, reactivate vacant ground floor properties, reduce the number of vacant units.

The Minor Improvement Fund is open to all city centre stakeholders and is focused on enhancing the its look and feel, improving footfall and supporting the aspirations of City Centre Strategy to increase its residential population and attract more visitors.

This grant fund will support community groups, social enterprises and businesses to deliver interventions such as minor repair works such as improving shop front and community amenities, small scale greening/public space improvements, or measures to alleviate anti-social behaviour and reduce blight. It will not support hard infrastructure projects.

Total grants of £200,000 will be available for each streams, with a maximum award of £20,000 per project. Grants will be issued as valid applications are received.

Councillor Angus Millar, Convener for City Centre Recovery at Glasgow City Council, said: "The City Centre Improvement Grant Fund offers the chance for businesses and local organisations to bring new life to empty units, increase footfall, and help the ongoing work to improve the look and feel of the area. The fund opens to applications this month and I'd encourage those with proposals that meet the aims of the project and believe they can make a genuine positive contribution to our city centre to apply."

The 12-month project will be evaluated at the end of the pilot to assess its impact.