Closure of High Street Services: Rural Areas

Edward Morello Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Edward Morello (West Dorset) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. I would also like to thank my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) for securing this important debate.

The wonderful towns of West Dorset may be small, but they are mighty. The resilience of our local businesses cannot be overstated. The Liberal Democrat-run town councils have done a brilliant job in supporting the high streets and working with local businesses to help them to recover from the ravages of covid. Our towns of Bridport, Dorchester and Sherborne have seen encouraging signs, but we should be clear that there is still much work to be done to ensure their long-term success.

In Bridport, where footfall is rising, the town boasts an impressive array of independent retailers, markets, pubs and cultural venues such as Bucky Doo Square. Bridport and West Bay enjoy 596,000 day visits a year, and up to £49 million in tourism spending, including £10 million on shopping alone, driven in no small part by the packed calendar of community events. Retail unoccupancy in the town is just 7%, significantly below the national average of 14%. However, even with that success, the number of vacant shops remains above pre-pandemic levels, and we cannot afford complacency.

Dorchester’s Sunday market draws over 10,000 visitors, leading some businesses to extend their opening hours. That is a positive step, but we must build on that momentum. Seasonal fluctuations remain a challenge in West Dorset, and without Government support, the improvements we have seen risk being undone. Sherborne, too, has shown the ability to attract new businesses with cultural events, such as its Abbey concerts, the Literary Society’s festival, the Sherborne International Film festival and the Sherborne festive shopping day, helping to bring more people to the town.

There are also challenges in Sherborne; its last remaining bank is soon set to close and be replaced by a banking hub. That transition highlights the ongoing struggle to maintain essential services in rural communities. There must be clear action, because business rates and rising national insurance costs are placing additional pressure on small enterprises which have already weathered so much. Our local producers, farmers and microbusinesses, which form the backbone of West Dorset’s economy, need targeted support to navigate the economic challenges.

Our high streets are not just places to shop; they are where communities come together. In Bridport, R. J. Balson & Son was established in 1515 and it is the oldest butcher’s in the country. Family-run businesses and local markets instil a sense of community belonging, and those businesses need our help, not just from consumers who we must urge to shop locally rather than online, but from Government policies that recognise the unique challenges of high street communities.

--- Later in debate ---

[Gareth Thomas]

I apologise to the hon. Gentleman, but he has only just rocked up to the debate, so if he will forgive me, on this occasion I will not give way. If there is a specific issue about which he wants to write to me, I would be happy to look at it.

Hon. Members will know that the FCA engages with banks and building societies to ensure that the impacts of branch closures on customers are properly considered. Where firms fall short, the FCA can and will ask for a closure to be paused or for other options to be put in place. Some banks also provide pop-up services, with a community banker visiting a library or a community centre to offer support where other options are not available. I understand that that has been the case in the constituency of the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross following the announcement of the closure of the Bank of Scotland branch in Golspie, and that Lloyds Banking Group will be providing a pop-up community banking service on a regular basis to support local people with banking services.

For a number of reasons, we are beginning to look at what else the Post Office can do to improve its banking offer, and I hope to say a little more about that in a moment. When the local high street bank closes, the alternative option for accessing everyday banking services in person is the post office. As our economy has modernised and evolved, so too have our local post offices. Today, they are much more than just a place to send letters and parcels. They increasingly act as basic high street banks, but also as access points for some Government services and, in many places, as community hubs for an array of different activities, generating tremendous social capital in our communities. So it is right that the Government hold the Post Office to account to ensure there is enough provision across the country. We protect the post office network by setting minimum access criteria. At all times, we want 99% of the UK population to live within three miles of a post office and 90% to live within one mile.

[Edward Morello]

The Minister seems to be outlining very succinctly the failure of the banks to provide a service and the importance of post offices in providing services. I am struggling to understand why the Government are punishing the Post Office with national insurance contribution rises while maintaining the Tory tax cuts for the banks, so will the Minister explain why we are rewarding the people who are failing us and punishing those who will now provide this service to us?

[Gareth Thomas]

The hon. Gentleman will know that the Government had a very difficult fiscal inheritance and had to make some very tough choices in the Budget back in October.

We continue to provide a subsidy to the Post Office of some £50 million to ensure that the loss-making parts of the network can be maintained. Indeed, just before Christmas we provided a further £37.5 million to support the Post Office network this year. We are working with the senior leadership team at the Post Office on future opportunities, beginning with banking, so that the company can increase its product offers and commercial revenue while reducing its costs, as well as improving the service to all our constituents.

I heard the specific concerns raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, whose constituency includes Stornoway, about the future of the directly managed post office in his constituency. No decisions have been made on the future of all the directly managed branches, but I know he will continue to campaign on the issue.

We want our post offices to form part of healthy, bustling high streets. Like the post office itself, our high streets have had to adapt quickly to the post-covid economy. High streets have faced more than their fair share of challenges in recent years, in terms of vacancies opening up—an issue that my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket referred to. That is why in December we brought forward new powers for councils, which can now force landlords to rent out unsightly, vacant, boarded-up properties via high street rental auctions. The new regulations will make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable, giving local businesses and community groups a right to rent valuable space on their local high street. I welcome the fact that Bassetlaw, Darlington and Mansfield are already working with us as early adopters to help to learn how the new power can be used to make a difference.

We have also announced our intention to introduce a new community right to buy, empowering residents to address decline and protect valuable spaces such as pubs, theatres and cinemas, and thereby keeping those assets in the hands of the local community. We are investing in further initiatives to boost town and city centres, including by maintaining the high street accelerators that bring together the local community, businesses and property owners to work in partnership with their council to regenerate and revive local high streets.

My hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe referred to our work to improve and reform the business rates system. That was a key manifesto pledge that we are beginning to deliver on, with permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties, including those on the high street, from 2026-27. We have published a discussion paper to explore what else we can do in this space.

My hon. Friend the Member for South West Norfolk referred to issues to do with digital connectivity. He will be pleased that we are committing over £500 million next year to deliver Project Gigabit and the shared rural network to roll out broadband and 4G connectivity, which will support growth in rural areas and beyond.

Digital connectivity is one consideration for rural communities but, as hon. Members have rightly pointed out, physical connectivity is another. For people in far-flung communities, especially those without a car or family living nearby, getting to the high street can be extremely difficult. We recognise that challenge and are responding in turn with more than £650 million for local transport outside city regions in 2025-26. The Department for Transport will say more about how that funding will be used shortly.

We are also providing more than £1 billion of funding to support and improve local bus services and keep fares affordable wherever we can. In December we introduced the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill that will put control over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England. It is intended to ensure that bus services reflect the needs of the communities that rely on them.

I thank the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross and all Members who participated in this debate for their contributions. High streets are the beating heart of all our communities. The services they provide are essential for the people and businesses they serve. As a Minister with a key interest in this area, I look forward to continuing to work with hon. Members to help to improve local high street services in their communities.