There has not been much optimism on the high street of late. 2013 has seen a number of big names under threat, while boarded-up shops are becoming all too familiar a sight around the UK.

But this week there were signs that the government might just be getting its act together and getting the right people and tools in place to tackle the crisis.

There have recently been two significant developments.

In February, the government launched the Future High Streets Forum, bringing together the likes of Tesco, Boots, Costa and Vodafone with leading retail groups such as the BRC and the ACS. Yes, comes the groan, yet another task force to save the High Street - but at least this one has the right people involved, if only they can avoid an almighty punch-up.

Then, this week, came the awarding of a £1m grant for the Association of Town and City Management and a consortium of other groups to conduct a root-and-branch review of the work of the 27 Portas pilots and 330-plus town teams. These teams have generated bucketloads of negative publicity about the work that they have - or have not - been doing.

Yet perhaps the most significant thing is that the government seems to be trying a new approach. The minister for local growth, Mark Prisk, is respected by many in the retail industry. He has shown a practicality and willingness to engage with those on the front line that was sadly lacking under his predecessor on the high-street front, Grant Shapps (now Tory chairman).

Shapps memorably launched phase one of the government’s efforts to save high-street shops by conducting a Britain’s Got Talent-style contest on YouTube. It may have attracted plenty of interest from towns across the land but it left many in the industry holding their heads in despair.

Prisk seems more averse to such gimmicks, which completely ignored most of the key issues raised in the Mary Portas Review, unfairly shifted all of the attention onto the Queen of Shops herself, and resulted in initiatives that desperately needed more central co-ordination and support.

As Prisk himself has stressed, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the woes of the High Street. It’s a good thing that one of the forums’ first tasks will be to shine a light on towns where successes are being achieved, with or without Portas.

And while the £1m grant to the ATCM in itself is peanuts, focusing support from government, planning experts and major retailers in a much more co-ordinated fashion should give business more of a fighting chance of getting meaningful help.

You’ll be able to read more on this in this week’s Grocer.

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