MARKET towns are set to be among the beneficiaries of a £1m fund to help revitalise Britain's high streets.

The government funding will be made available to help revitalise local economies by support the creation of high street neighbourhood plans.

The announcement is part of the government's response to the Mary Portas' High Street Review.

A raft of other incentives included funding schemes and bureaucracy-busting measures, said planning minister Greg Clark

Together they would help rejuvenate the country's rundown high streets.

Local people would be brought together with businesses and councils to develop and agree a neighbourhood high street plan.

Doing so would ensure locally led sustainable development put the town centre first with plans for the vitalising and growing their high street economy.

Mr Clark said: "For too long local people have been shut out of the planning process with no real voice to affect decisions about the places where they live.

"High streets are at the heart of their communities and new neighbourhood plans hand power back to communities so they can help shape the future development of this crucial part of their local economy.

Neighbourhood planning is part of a series of measures to shift power away from Whitehall into the hands of local people.

Over 200 neighbourhood planning front-runner projects are already trialling the new powers before they are fully rolled out next week.

Several of these areas are developing plans to reinvigorate their high streets, including the market town of Thame, South Oxfordshire.