Rolling out the programme
Small towns of tomorrow

Caylus and Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val are winners of the Small Towns of Tomorrow programme!

Petites villes de demain (Small Towns of Tomorrow) aims to improve living conditions for residents of small towns and the surrounding area, by supporting local authorities in dynamic and environmentally-friendly projects. The aim of the programme is to give the elected representatives of towns and local authorities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants, who have central functions, the resources they need to put their regional projects into practice.

A programme to speed up the recovery

The launch of Petites villes de demain comes at a time when our country is experiencing an unprecedented health and economic crisis. In response, the French government has decided to launch a €100 billion recovery plan, with a large proportion of the funding earmarked for local areas.

To make this a reality, local authorities need to be mobilised quickly. The 1,000 areas involved in Petites villes de demain (Small Towns of Tomorrow) are, by virtue of their dynamism, the variety of their projects and their commitment to a more ecological development model, fully committed players in the recovery. As such, the Small Towns of Tomorrow will be able to benefit immediately from stimulus funding to finance their projects, which will contribute to the plan's three priorities of ecology, competitiveness and cohesion.

A 6-year programme of support for key central areas

The programme is designed to support 1,000 municipalities and inter-municipalities over six years (2020-2026). This calibration is the result of work carried out by the ANCT and the INRAE, which identified, on a national scale, municipalities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants that perform central functions in their catchment area and show signs of vulnerability. The quantitative approach was consolidated by contributions from the Prefects following the instruction dated 16 October 2020.