The young entrepreneurs who may hold the key to revitalising Britain’s beleaguered high streets have been chosen.
Led by Sir Tom Farmer, the judging panel of the innovative Carnegie UK Trust’s TestTown initiative gathered in Dunfermline to whittle down scores of entries into a final 10.
Aimed at young people aged between 16 and 30, TestTown is a challenge to revamp the country’s town centres.
With British Retail Consortium statistics showing one in 10 town centre shops is closed, it is searching for breakthrough businesses to help kick-start new ideas about town centre redevelopment.
Jim Metcalfe, practice and development manager at Carnegie UK, said more than 110 applications from across Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales had been received and 550 young people had registered to participate for the pilot project held in this, the trust’s centenary year.
Each finalist will receive £1,000 towards getting their business ready and will be given advice by a mentor to prepare for the finals in Dunfermline next month.
Then each finalist will be given a vacant town centre space to trade with consumers. The winners, who do the best job of turning their ideas into reality, will receive £10,000 to take their idea to market for real.
The trust is hoping that the example of the TestTown competition will help drive youth-centred innovations across the UK.
All of the resources it is developing for TestTown will be offered to other organisations and local authorities everywhere.
Photo by David Wardle