LAST year, local authorities in North Wales were awarded a total of £966,000 to deliver small Property Development Grants (PDGs) to improve commercial units and empty buildings in their town centres.

The PDGs were delivered through Welsh Government’s Transforming Towns Programme to support regeneration and enhance town centre properties.

The grant awards have supported property owners and occupiers alike to make improvements to their premises and bring vacant, commercial floor space back into beneficial business use.

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Property grant re-opens for Rhyl town centre businesses

The total investment for the Property Development Grants in the region is £1.536million.

Across 10 towns, a total of 45 properties were improved, with 12 of those properties returning to active use.

One of the projects that benefitted from the grant was the external refurbishment of a former Woolworths building in Rhyl, at 1-4 East Parade.

The building is located just off High Street, and thanks to the grant funding, it has seen extensive external improvements to the windows, shutters and tiles, as well as a full re-paint of the building.

Elsewhere, Palas Print in Caernarfon has received repairs to its shop front and roof, new windows and paint work to the shopfront.

The Dinorben Arms Hotel, a prominent grade II listed building in Amlwch, has also received a new lease of life including restoration works to restore the main elevation wooden sash window.

The cabinet secretary for housing, local government and planning, Jayne Bryant, said: “Through our Transforming Towns programme, we are providing invaluable support to towns and city centres to create employment opportunities for local people and bringing vibrancy to our high streets.

“It’s wonderful to see the huge impacts these small grants are already having across North Wales.

“I hope by improving our town centre offers in Wales we can help safeguard and develop Welsh based businesses and encourage economic growth.”