Shops queen Mary Portas bags 10million to help our high street

Britain's poorest high streets are to get a 10 million cash injection after Mary Queen of Shops won government backing for her regeneration plan.

Flame haired shopping guru Mary Portas was "thrilled" today to see most of her 28 point blueprint get the thumbs up.

Her bid to breathe life into struggling town centres includes grants for areas with the most boarded up shops so they can be re-opened,

free or cheaper parking and a 1 million jackpot for the town that turns itself around the best.

Portas - who has her own range of women's clothes and lingerie - has also won her campaign to bring market days back to the high street.

June 23 will see the launch of Love Your Local Market with entrepreneurs from craftsman and artists to bakers and jewellery makers able to set up stall for a tenner in town centres.

Portas was hired by the Prime Minister last year to come up with an action plan to revive the flagging high street.

Today her Portas Plus plan was given the green light by Housing Minister Grant Shapps following warnings that Britain's high streets were in danger of being wiped out.

He said: "Mary Portas's review made crystal clear the stark challenge our high streets face.

"With internet shopping and out-of-town centres here to stay, they must offer something new if they are to entice visitors back."

But the government kicked out her hardest hitting measure - a clampdown on out of town shopping malls.

Although Mary was said to be miffed over the decision she said: "When I published my review I was clear that this was an action plan for our high streets, not a document to gather dust on Whitehall shelves.

"But I do believe that today marks the first day of a fresh new approach, putting our high streets firmly back on the public and national agenda."

Portas Plus got a mixed reception from the industry with the British Retail Consortium (BRC) calling for "greater ambition" from the government.

But the Association of Town Centre Management said it handed "local communities the opportunity to shape the future High Street they want to see in their town."