High Streets

Before we begin, I encourage Members to wear masks when they are not speaking, in line with current Government and House of Commons Commission guidance. Please also give one another and members of staff space when seated and when entering and leaving the room. You will all have seen that it is a very heavily subscribed debate, so I will impose a time limit. Janet Daby will move the motion.

I beg to move,

That this House has considered support for UK high streets.

It is a pleasure to serve under you as Chair, Ms Nokes.

I am grateful to be granted today’s debate at a time when the UK’s high streets are collapsing. They are collapsing under the weight of pandemic closures and unreasonable taxation. Shopkeepers, their staff and customers alike are experiencing a poorer standard of living. They need the Minister to step up and promise to give them the support that they need. They need to be able to breathe a sigh of relief after 19 months of uncertainty and fear. They need to believe that things can indeed get better.

We all have memories of our favourite shops when we were younger—I know I do—whether a favourite bakery, sweet shop or joke shop. However, sadly, many of those places are no longer around for my children to enjoy. Some of the most iconic, big-name retailers even of the last decade have vanished from our high streets: Woolworths, British Home Stores, Debenhams and Littlewoods all spring to mind.

I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing today’s debate. Over the past few years, as the hon. Lady has said, we have seen an increase in businesses moving away from physical retail space to an online model. The move has benefited retailers at the top levels of their companies, as it comes with associated savings in areas such as business rates or, for us Scots, non-domestic rates. Such moves, however, have a heavy impact on local communities: fewer jobs, for example, or a lack of accessibility.

Order. I remind hon. Members to keep interventions brief.

Yes, Ms Nokes. Would the hon. Member agree that the Government should incentivise retailers to maintain a physical presence?

I thank the hon. Member for a really important and significant intervention. All the points that she has mentioned are very pertinent. There is a lot that the Government could do to make improvements.

Even big household names could not operate under the Conservative Government’s business rates. No one 20 years ago would have been able to fathom the end of Topshop—never mind the collapse of the entire Arcadia empire, leading to over 700 job losses and units being left to decay. The growth of online retail has slashed footfall in high streets and town centres, benefiting online giants like ASOS and Amazon and crushing local independents. There is still no commitment from the Government to an online sales tax, which would level the playing field. While major online businesses pay only nominal taxes, bricks-and-mortar small businesses are taxed into extinction. How can the Minister justify that?

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate. I have been in the House a long time. In 1981, Mrs Thatcher introduced a windfall-profit tax on the banks. Is my hon. Friend thinking of a similar windfall-profit tax on the people who have profited in the covid years, to get them to pay proper levels of tax to invest in our local communities?

I was in primary school at the time that my hon. Friend mentions, but I thank him for the intervention. We need a fair tax system, and I will address that in my speech.

I see the effects of the system of business taxation play out in my constituency of Lewisham East. Taxation is simply too high for small and medium-sized enterprises, especially after an insurmountable fall in revenue since March 2020. The current system of business taxation is outdated and unfair. It punishes small businesses aspiring to serve local communities and allows online empires to grow only stronger. In 2019, it was estimated that the eight largest tech companies operating in the UK avoided a combined total of £1.5 billion in tax.

A House of Commons public survey found concerns for our high street and ideas for improvement. Clair said that

“it’s sad to see so many town centres looking deserted, as many shops have been forced to close due to rents and rates.”

Kate said:

“There are empty units which make the town look dead”.

Nobody wants a dead town. Jags was concerned about antisocial behaviour rising on high streets when shops are boarded up. When asked what the Government could do to turn around prospects for high street businesses, Jane simply said:

“Slash taxes for small businesses. Make it worth our while to work the hours we do.”

I agree and Labour agrees.

We need a Government who demonstrate that they are pro-workers and pro-business. A review of all tax breaks needs to happen. The Government need to be serious about investing in a sustainable way that allows home-grown businesses to flourish and ensures the best value for the taxpayer. The local high street is for leisure, but for some it is a lifeline. Almost half of the people living in London use their local area daily. My constituents rely on local shops. They do not want to have to do a laborious journey on public transport or drive through busy London to run their errands. This applies especially to those living with disabilities or pushing prams, or to elderly people struggling with walkers. Why should their lives become more difficult when people wish to shop local and local people wish to work local?

There are not as many Members as I first feared, so an informal guidance for about five minutes would be very helpful.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Nokes, and I congratulate the hon. Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby) on securing this debate. I am fortunate enough to represent a number of thriving towns and high streets across my constituency of Truro and Falmouth. Recently, I was delighted and proud to see Truro jump an incredible 72 places to be named one of the best high streets of 2021, despite the coronavirus pandemic. That means that our little city has had a vitality ranking that beats the likes of Brighton, York, Exeter, Oxford and Taunton—all those having exceptional high streets.

Within my constituency I have two high streets that benefit from business improvement districts: Truro and Falmouth. Both have exceptional teams and are worth their weight in gold. Both of the BIDs do so much for the high street businesses and for the shoppers. High streets have struggled, but the BIDs do everything that they can to keep it lively, thriving and pretty. For example, if there is an empty unit on the high street, they are on the scene to cover it over with bright and helpful graphics. Their branding is second to none, particularly in Falmouth, and they did Cornwall proud during the G7 summit earlier this year when it was showcased by the world’s media. I put on record my thanks to the BIDs of Truro, Falmouth and Newham.

As we emerge from the pandemic and the high streets bounce back, the reopening high streets safely fund and the welcome back fund have proven to be instrumental. In Truro, we are currently going through our towns fund process, where an injection of £23.6 million is set to regenerate and transform the city centre. That will be huge for the high street, and will help to reconnect Truro with its water.

As I mention the towns fund, I would also like to make an appeal to the Department and to the Minister, as I look forward to further details being released about the next tranche of the towns deal so that I can lobby, making a similar case for Falmouth.

The hon. Lady is making a very good speech, but she may not know that in my constituency we declared Huddersfield a sustainable town and a sustainable community under the United Nations sustainable development goals. We are building a network of 500 towns and cities; would the hon. Lady consider taking the message back to her communities that we would love to work in partnership with her?

I am very happy to take that message back, and hopefully we can connect—I think that is very useful. Falmouth is a town that often gets overlooked because of how well it does with the limited resources it has. A towns fund deal for the port of Falmouth, which is the gateway to the Atlantic, would absolutely unleash this town’s potential. Falmouth’s bid is already leading by example; their proactive engagement tools have supported a brilliantly diverse business events and engagements scene, and have welcomed the regional leads for the south-west in for bids. I would encourage the Department to look closely at the Falmouth bid as a case study for a thriving high street. There needs to be much greater representation on rural and coastal issues pertaining to high streets at the central debating table. On too many occasions, the debate is dominated by the captains of large businesses and of large urban areas, and the points of micro, independent and small businesses in this landscape are largely missed. The high streets taskforce is a good example, as Cornwall has absolutely no representation on it.

During the pandemic the high street had to adapt. In both Truro and Falmouth al fresco dining became the norm, allowing local bars and restaurants to make use of public open spaces to host punters, and continue to deliver a quality service and product. The red tape around the legislation on pavement licences, which has been granted an extension to September 2022, must be cut to allow businesses to extend trading space outside their curtilage. In Cornwall that has opened up opportunities for more imaginative place-shaping, ideas for encouraging visitors and greater collaboration between the small business sector and local councils. Falmouth has been on the front foot with this; by liaising proactively with Cornwall Council, car parks, less used pavement spaces and quiet areas have been transformed into al fresco dining and event options. That has helped to support their summer season as we bounce back from covid.

Lastly, in Cornwall our larger towns, like Truro and Falmouth, are picking up big devolution packages—which is fantastic. However, those packages include public services such as car parks and libraries. The House has made excellent progress by, for example, taking away business rates on public toilets, but we can go further than that; I would love to see business rate relief extended to public services such as car parks, libraries and council offices, encouraging them to relocate to our high streets and giving people more of a reason to visit them. I could go on and say much more, particularly about supporting our high streets to make them low-carbon. We must do more to encourage the green transition: there has to be greater guidance, support and investment for green schemes. As it stands, we rely too much on individual businesses to make such changes, and that puts more pressure on them as they tread water on the back of the pandemic, particularly when we take into account listed buildings and conservation areas, as we have seen in Cornwall.

I send my condolences, and those of the people whom I represent in Barnsley, to the family, friends and constituents of Sir David Amess. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Nokes. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby) on securing this important debate.

Our high streets have had a difficult 18 months. As footfall recovers, we need to look more closely at how the impact has been distributed across the country. In Exeter, Aldershot and Reading, for example, at least two-thirds of neighbourhoods are likely to have been able to save through the pandemic. That is true for fewer than 25% of neighbourhoods in Hull, Blackpool and Barnsley, however. That will have a real impact on consumers’ ability to spend money in their local economy. In reality, the pandemic has hit poorer areas harder, and we need to consider how we address that.

The demise of our high streets did not begin with covid, but with a decade of austerity. Over the last 10 years, 10,000 shops, 6,000 pubs, 7,500 banks and more than 1,100 libraries have closed. That is felt particularly acutely in semi-rural areas such as the one I represent in Barnsley East. I represent a collection of towns and villages around the centre of Barnsley that do not benefit from a strong local transport network, so the closure of the local bank or library has a huge impact on the local community. We need to ensure that we reverse those figures and do not allow the continued demise of the high street.

In the last year alone 180,000 retail jobs have been lost, and 200,000 more are at risk this year. We need to look at bringing empty commercial properties back into use for new and existing businesses. We need to level the playing field between high-street and online businesses, because the tax system, which was mentioned earlier, is simply not equal. We need to promote entrepreneurship and innovation on our high streets so that they reflect the needs of our local communities.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Nokes. I thank the hon. Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby) for securing this important debate.

As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on the future of retail, and as a former “Woolies” worker, this is an issue about which I care passionately. During the pandemic, while many retreated to the safety of their own homes, our retail workers rolled up their sleeves and got on with the job. For that, we owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

The challenges faced by our high streets are not new; we have been debating them for decades. The events of the past year have amplified and accelerated those difficulties. I know that the Treasury threw the kitchen sink at supporting businesses during the pandemic, whether through the furlough scheme, the rates holiday or the grants scheme. Those measures have been a life- line for many businesses in my patch.

The role of our high streets is changing, and to help our town centres adapt and change, the Government have rightly been flooding them with funding, including the future high streets fund, the town deals, the levelling-up fund and any other such schemes. In my part of the world and that of the hon. Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham), Stockton has received £16.5 million of funding to build a high street that is fit for the future; Thornaby has received a £23.9 million town deal that will, among other things, help tear down a defunct hotel that has been an eyesore in the town centre for years; and our levelling-up bid for up to £20 million would help to improve Yarm’s high street. I remain incredibly grateful for that, but there is more to high streets than slick buildings and shiny objects, and that is the businesses that give our high streets a soul.

This afternoon, I met the British Retail Consortium and the CEOs of a huge number of retailers. The biggest single issue raised, which is life or death for many stores in our high streets, was business rates: 83% of retailers feel that they are likely to close stores in the near future if the burden of business rates is not reduced. The business rates regime is simply not fit for purpose. Business rates are outdated: they strangle growth and smother investment. They disproportionately whack the retail and hospitality sectors. Retailers account for 5% of the economy but are subject to 25% of all business rates.