High Streets (Built Environment Committee Report)

Baroness Grey-Thompson Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2025 Grand Committee

[Baroness Grey-Thompson (CB)]

My Lords, I draw the Committee’s attention to my interests in the register. I am president of the Local Government Association, and I have previously been the chair of ukactive.

I welcome this timely and important report. As consumer behaviour continues to shift online, many of our towns are losing their economic vitality and civic identity. I shop online: it is quick and easy, but it is fairly soulless compared with visiting your local high street. As the committee notes, there is no single solution to regenerate our high streets, but we must remain flexible, recognising that no two communities are the same. But if we are really serious about regenerating high streets that are resilient and economically viable, inclusivity must be at the forefront of our efforts.

In 2014, the organisation Disabled Go—now known as AccesAble—audited nearly 30,000 high street shops and restaurants to assess their accessibility. Of the 27,000 retail outlets examined, only 20% were accessible to wheelchair users, largely due to steps and the absence of ramps. Moreover, 91% of the 105 leading high street retailers provided no online information about accessibility at their stores.

The picture is no better in the hospitality sector: around 40% of restaurants had no accessible toilet. I apologise; I am going to overshare. If I go somewhere new, I have to very carefully moderate what I drink, in case there is not an accessible toilet. Nearly half of the restaurant staff questioned said that they had received no disability awareness training.

While an audit on this scale has not been repeated since, the Government’s 2021 UK Disability Survey confirmed that there had been little progress in making our high streets more accessible. The report found that 31% of respondents had trouble accessing public spaces “all the time” or “often”. Of those, a further 78% said that they found it either impossible or very difficult to access shops.

This is not merely a social failure but an economic one. The spending power of disabled people and their households, commonly referred to as the “purple pound”, is estimated at £274 billion—a potential revenue that our high streets are actively losing due to inaccessibility. I recognise what others have said about old shops not necessarily being easy to adapt, but not all access is hard to achieve. It is about being creative, putting a notice outside the shop door or having a buzzer; it is about being open to thinking differently.

A disabled person recently shared an experience with me. He was visiting his local high street and was unable to access a shop due to the steps at the entrance, so his wife had to go inside to ask whether the shop had a ramp. It turns out that it did, but there was no way of knowing this from outside the shop. He told me that, if he had been alone, he would not even have bothered waiting outside or trying to shout through the door; he simply would have moved on. Many shops already have ramps and basic accessibility measures in place, but it is clear that visible communication is missing from our high streets.

I welcome the report’s recommendation to improve transport access to our high streets, but public transport still leaves a lot to be desired. While I greatly support improving bus networks for better connectivity, there is no promise that that will improve the journeys of disabled people.

Just last night, the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, was informed when she was trying to get on a bus that the law has changed—supposedly—and that wheelchair users no longer have priority on board. The law has not changed, but this is not an infrequent experience for disabled people.

It is essential to the growth of our high streets that any changes to transport access must consider disabled people. Car parking spaces should account for adaptive vehicles and accessible EV charging. There is a woeful lack of EV charging ports available to disabled people across the country. About two years ago, I tried to change my car to an electric car and I found that there were no accessible charging points within at least a 40-mile radius of my house, so I could not switch.

In certain towns, EV charging spaces have been put on top of existing disabled bays. While there is no legal requirement to have a certain number of disabled bays in a car park, it is abhorrent that access for disabled people is continually being taken away. As such, I urge all local authorities to consult disabled people at all stages of regeneration projects. By including disabled people from the outset, local authorities will not risk having to spend more money down the line to make their towns more accessible.

I am also very interested in how we can use high street regeneration projects to drive growth among the UK’s physical activity sector, as previously reported by ukactive. There is a huge opportunity to integrate physical activity and well-being provision within communities by regenerating underutilised properties—shops, restaurants and vacant office spaces—into new, accessible and budget-friendly facilities.

Regeneration projects will benefit greatly from the inclusion of physical activity and sport; by creating healthier, more vibrant communities you are improving social conditions and making happier citizens. However, under current planning laws, it is easier to open a chicken shop than a yoga studio. If the Government are invested in promoting healthier lifestyles and decreasing obesity rates, why do they continue to make it a challenge for those who just want to improve the health and well-being of their communities?

I value my local high street. I love it: I love the eclectic nature of the shops and how people are trying really hard to make it more accessible, but there is still so much work that we have to do to make sure that disabled people have the same ability as non-disabled people to access local high streets.

Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill)

Baroness Grey-Thompson Excerpts

Consideration of Commons amendments and / or reasons
Wednesday 26th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Con)]

My Lords, I have not to date spoken on this Bill, but there are couple of matters which need to be aired regarding the history of charity. I am a director of a charity, and my daughter attends a private school—let us get those on the record.

The history of charity in this country goes back a very long way, with a particular flourishing during Elizabethan times. The charities of that era were often health related, certainly education related and often to do with hospice and almshouse care—of course, this Government have decided to raise a jobs tax on hospices, which we have been discussing this week. The concept of charity was founded very much on education.

Through the latter end of my illness, my wife would drive me home at weekends for home visits. We found all manner of routes through south-east London to avoid the worst of some of Mayor Khan’s blockages that have been created through London—it did not stop us from paying the ULEZ, of course. On one of the small roads, I came across a charity called the Portuguese speakers community centre. I thought, “Well, well, well, there is such a thing”. I am sure that it does the most amazing work. On most high streets, we see a variety of charities. Lots are to do with animal support—the PDSA, Cats Protection and all manner of other charities. They all do very good work. However, they were not envisaged as the charities of the day when the big flowering of charities came to pass in Elizabethan times, but education most certainly was.

So, for the first time in the history of this nation, we are deciding to have a two-tier charitable system. Whereas that charity route of old—education—is no longer deemed of charitable-worthy status, the Portuguese community centre, for instance, which I am sure does good work, is. It is a strange day that we pass through with this legislation—it is a very sad day. The amendments in Motion Q1 will at least give the Secretary of State pause for thought and an easy way out in the future. I almost guarantee that those thoughts on raising lots of revenue will never be realised. Schools will close and, because of the VAT increase, children will move to the state sector and be a cost to the state in their education. Let us note this day and heed what is being told to the Government: “You will rue this decision”.

[Baroness Grey-Thompson (CB)]

My Lords, I rise to support the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, and ask that noble Lords note my register of interests. I have not spoken on the Bill before, but we need to consider the impact on sport.

Over many cycles of Olympic Games, many of our medal-winning athletes have gone through the independent school sector and a significant number will have been supported with scholarships. The access it gives to high-quality coaching and facilities, and balancing education with that pathway, is important.

The Sutton Trust has noted that private schools are overrepresented among the medal-winning athletes that we have. Its data probably does not support the argument that I am about to give. The noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, was right that 33% of Team GB’s medallists at the Paris 2024 Games went through private schools—down from 40% for the Tokyo Games. Yes, that compares with just 7% of the general population. Is it right that it is disproportionate? No, it is not, but the independent sector offers amazing opportunities for athletes to succeed.

The reality is that there is so much work that we need to do in our state schools. They should provide access to good-quality sports facilities and coaching and care about our children’s education, but the reality is that we are still quite a long way from that. We already know that the state sector is struggling to deliver sports such as cricket; the ECB has noted that. We need to think about the consequences in the short term for our medal-winning athletes and our place on the medal table.

I did not think I that I would be in a debate defending independent schools, but it is important that we are able to offer the right support to young people. A lot of young people on scholarships in independent schools will lose out on the chance to represent the UK. That is not right for the foreseeable future of our elite sporting environment.