Brandon Lewis
Main Page: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)Shop Closures (South Shields)
Brandon Lewis Excerpts
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)
I congratulate the hon. Member for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck) on securing this debate. It is always good to have a chance to discuss the situation on our high streets and to highlight the great work that is going on all over the country to develop them. Many local councils are committed to the regeneration of their town centres and to longer-term programmes, such as the £100 million plan, South Shields 365, which aims to regenerate the area. The plan includes a new central library and digital media centre; improvements to the market square and the public realm; new integrated transport, retail, leisure and cinema facilities; and a new food store, as well as a new multi-storey car park and other surface-level car parking.
If high streets are to remain at the heart of our communities, they need to be more than simply places to shop. We must be brave enough to admit that they are changing and that they need to change. They need to be vibrant and viable places where people live, shop, use services and spend their leisure time, both during the day and in the evening. They are no longer just somewhere to shop.
It is good to see the recent signs that the UK’s high streets are starting to recover. Overall, vacancy rates have started to reduce, and reoccupation rates for the high street are much higher—
Mrs Lewell-Buck
If that is the case, how does the Minister explain the fact that more shops are shutting on my high street, month after month? If there is a sense of recovery, why is it not being felt in towns such as mine in the north?
Brandon Lewis
If the hon. Lady will let me continue, I will give her some examples. At 70%, reoccupation rates are higher than they are for shopping centres or retail parks. A recent report from Experian highlighted the systematic change that is under way in our town centres, with traditional occupiers making way for a wider range of services—a mix of leisure, including food, and the night-time economy. Any area has to look at what is right for it and drive change. I am sure that the hon. Lady will want to work with her local area to work out what is right for that community and drive it forward. Areas are doing different things; her area has to look at what is right for it.
The hon. Lady mentioned the comment from Bill Grimsey about the plethora of things that the Government have done. She is right. There are town teams; there are Portas pilots; there is the future high streets forum. There is a menu of options for people who want to get involved and take their high street forward. That is a positive thing. It means that towns, villages, market squares and high streets can choose from that menu what is right for them and apply it to their area, rather than being restricted, as the Opposition would have it, to a one-size-fits-all. We do not believe in that. We believe that it is right to be committed to helping communities to adapt, but to be clear that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
Every town is different and has to address the problem at a local level. That is why we believe that the visions, plans and ideas for town centres must come from the areas themselves. I will touch in a minute on the powers that we have provided. Contrary to what the hon. Lady said, we have given a phenomenal amount of powers and opportunities to local areas to design their own future. It is for councils, businesses and communities themselves to decide what their high streets and town centres will look like in the future. The consumer will drive what the high street will be, not a Government body, be it local or central Government.
Just recently, we have worked with the future high streets forum to publish a model to deliver good local leadership, sharing best practice—a key part of delivering successful change. That model was developed by the forum, based on an analysis of the activity in some of our Portas pilot towns. I will say more on the forum in a moment. The Department for Communities and Local Government is funding a support programme for town teams, of which there are 333 across our country. That helps them to develop the vision and tools that they need to tackle the issues in their area.
Mrs Lewell-Buck
I thank the Minister for giving way again. It is all well and good giving towns and our high streets opportunities to decide what they want to do, but if retailers and businesses will not come because the business rates are too high, that will not solve the problem.
Brandon Lewis
The hon. Lady makes a good point, and I am surprised that she has not convinced her council to discount the business rates using powers in the Localism Act 2011, which allows local authorities to discount the business rates by 100% if they want. Many of the small, independent businesses that she referred to are able to benefit from the small business rate relief that this Government have taken forward and doubled for another year. About 300,000 business across the country will benefit from small business rate relief. We have also brought in a new £1 billion package on business rates that gives a discount of a further £1,000 to those with a rateable value of under £50,000. We must remember that the local authority can go even further and give a bit more. I will outline that a bit further in a moment.
The Chancellor announced a comprehensive package of support—the largest business rate package of support—before Christmas. We recognise that high streets are changing, and we are helping to put in place a framework of support to see that change through.
In a Deloitte report not that long ago, the No. 1 issue raised was the importance of parking to the modern high street and town centre. It is not just about business rates. We have consulted on local authority parking enforcement and recently announced a range of reforms that could help the high street. We have to ensure that people can get to the high street and park affordably and easily in order to encourage them back to the high street; we should not use some of the policies of yesteryear that discourage car use.
We are restricting local authority use of CCTV for parking enforcement, introducing a 10-minute grace period and extending the powers of traffic adjudicators. The business rate support package is the biggest package of support in more than 20 years. It includes capping the retail prices index increase this year, and a £1,000 discount for premises with a rateable value of up to £50,000. That includes shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants, and it places a clear, sharp focus on benefiting the high street.
To help small businesses, we have extended the doubling of the small business rate relief for another year and changed the rules to allow those taking on an extra property to keep their relief for an extra year. To help tackle vacant properties, we have introduced a new reoccupation relief, halving business rates for 18 months for businesses taking on long-term empty retail property. Those measures will make a huge difference to the small shops and local traders that are essential to town centres across the country.
Mrs Lewell-Buck
Does the Minister realise that freeing town centres from regulation means that payday loan shops and betting shops now proliferate on the high street? Far from allowing communities to make decisions, he has taken decisions away from them.
Brandon Lewis
Again, I suggest that the hon. Lady talks to her council about using the powers that it already has. It could use article 4 powers to deal with the issue, should it wish to.
Brandon Lewis
I shall just make a little more progress.
We must bear it in mind that this package is worth about £1 billion to businesses in England, of which about £500 million will benefit retail in England, making the point that this is about the whole high street, with a mix of leisure, retail, hospitality and services. We are also undertaking a review of business rates administration that will look at longer-term reforms to make the system even more transparent, efficient and responsive to economic circumstances.
The hon. Lady touched on planning. We have lifted planning restrictions to increase the flexibility of use on high streets, making it easier for communities to look to their future with a smaller retail core and encourage people to come back to live in town centres. Over the summer, we will consult on further changes to allow the high street to respond to changing demand, and perhaps to enable restrictions on payday lenders and betting shops in a way that goes beyond the powers that local authorities already have.
Looking wider, the only sustainable way to raise living standards and create employment is to grow our overall economy. This Government are systematically putting in place the measures that businesses want and need to thrive. We took action on corporation tax and national insurance contributions. Corporation tax has been reduced to 21% and will fall again next year, to 20%. We are also easing the tax burden on small shops. Since April this year, every business and charity has been entitled to an allowance against their national insurance contributions. Up to 1.25 million businesses will benefit, with around 450,000 of them taken out of paying employer contributions altogether. Over 90% of the benefit of that allowance goes to small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Retail is one of the major employers of young people, and we are making it cheaper to take them on by abolishing employer contributions for those under 21 who earn up to £813 per week.
There is only so much national Government can do. We can put the framework in place. It is right that we do that, and we will continue to take opportunities where we can to help and support at a national level, but everyone needs to play their part, from local authorities, businesses and communities working together to develop the vision and solutions for their areas, to Government, retail, local government and business leaders working together in the future high streets forum. The forum has been key in bringing together leaders across multiple sectors to drive forward new ideas and policies.
I mentioned the recent report on leadership; the forum has also worked closely with Government and the Association of Town and City Management to develop the great British high street awards for 2014. The competition was launched just last week, and today we have launched the social media portal that goes with it. The competition will recognise and celebrate the strides taken and the hard work done by high streets and their communities.
Many high streets are now thriving because they have changed to serve their changing communities. Different places will change in different ways and at different paces. South Shields has an ambitious project, which I think is exciting and offers real opportunity for the future. Local authorities can look at measures such as improving access to services, making it easier to click and collect on the high street, or offering more fun and variety. The competition we are running will highlight what can be achieved, and what is being achieved, when there is a strong partnership between local authorities, businesses and consumers. We are looking to town teams or local partnership bodies to nominate themselves, backed by their communities and Members of Parliament, so I encourage people to get involved and get behind their local town teams and partnerships.
We will continue to support councils, businesses and communities. I remind the hon. Lady that if business rates are the key issue in South Shields, we have given that authority the power to discount business rates by as much as it wants—even by 100%. High streets are evolving. We have to embrace the future, and everyone has to play their part, not just in regeneration but in identifying and celebrating what works. We will continue to do that.
Question put and agreed to.