Bradford’s recession-hit shopping streets have been handed £100,000 of Government cash today in a move designed to breathe new life into boarded-up buildings.

The new High Street Innovation Fund is given to areas with the highest number of empty shops and businesses. Ministers said the grants would be used to support new businesses hoping to set up in struggling high streets.

Bradford was recently named the most risky city in the UK to invest in retail. Last week it was revealed as having England’s fourth highest concentration of pound shops.

Cash-strapped local councils and landlords will be expected to top up the £100,000, to make a total of £300,000 to be spent in each area.

Council leader Ian Greenwood said: “We welcome any money that would help us. But it’s only a relatively small contribution to what's a significant regeneration that we still need to do in the city centre.”

He said the key problem was too many landlords of empty buildings did not live in Bradford and felt they had no “stake” in the city’s future.

The innovation fund follows a report for David Cameron by Mary Portas – the star of the TV show Mary Queen of Shops – which raised the alarm over town centres.

Her proposals included having high streets run by dedicated ‘town teams’, relaxing licensing rules for market stalls, cutting red tape for high street traders and establishing a new ‘national market day’.

Today ministers are expected to announce they back almost all of her proposals, and 12 trial schemes will be announced in May.

Bradford businesswoman Jane Vincent, who spearheads the Positive Bradford campaign, welcomed the grant.

She said: “If we have got funding we can do something to bring people into the city and make shops more appealing. We have empty shops and we need to do something to bring people back into the city centre.”

Mary Frame, an executive member of Bradford Chamber of Trade, also welcomed the funding, but said: “It’s up to Bradford Council to spend this money wisely and take some advice from the traders and people concerned. It seems a minute amount when faced with the task we have in Bradford.”