Business of the House

Chris White Excerpts

Thursday 1st March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Chris White (Warwick and Leamington) (Con)]

Last week, Hatton & Harding in my constituency came second in the best small shop in Britain awards 2011, highlighting the quality of retail in our community. On the back of that, Warwick TweetUp, a group of local businesses, is campaigning for Warwick to put in a bid to be one of the Portas pilots, which I fully support. Will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating Hatton & Harding on its success, and will he schedule a debate in Government time on small retailers and how we can best support them?

[Sir George Young]

I commend Hatton & Harding for coming second in the competition to which my hon. Friend referred. He will know that we had a debate on the Mary Portas review in January in Back-Bench business time. The Government are grateful to Mary Portas for her review and are reflecting on its recommendations. We will announce in the spring our conclusions on that review. There may be an opportunity thereafter to have a further debate on the future of the high street.