High Streets

Jamie Stone Excerpts

Tuesday 19th October 2021 Westminster Hall

[Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Nokes. I thank the hon. Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby) for bringing forward this important debate. The hon. Member for Midlothian (Owen Thompson) has said something of the Scottish context, and it is within that context that I address my first remarks. What happens when it comes to our high streets in Scotland is largely the responsibility of the Scottish Government. My party and I are keen on a policy that tackles the impact of non-domestic or business rates, as mentioned by the hon. Member for Stockton South (Matt Vickers). These charges are making high street businesses simply not competitive with online ways of buying and selling.

Under devolved powers, rates could be reduced dramatically or abolished altogether for particular forms of retail businesses on our high streets. The Scottish Government set the business rates for businesses centrally and we know the rates are an incredibly important income for Scottish councils. If they were unilaterally got rid of or reduced, Scottish councils would face a terrible funding problem. In the Scottish context, I suggest there should be a discussion between the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. That could be echoed in the UK context, with a discussion between Her Majesty’s Government and the Local Government Association. There is genuine potential here.

As the hon. Member for Midlothian very wisely said, the income generated in our town centres is, in turn, spent in our town centres. It is banked in those town centres. In the highlands, we rely greatly on our tourism product. If town and village centres in the highlands are looking decrepit, run down or full of empty properties, frankly the tourists will not be enthused by that.

I had an alarming email today. Although it is not about a matter that is a direct responsibility of the Minister, I will share it. It is from Mr Andrew Mackay, the owner of three hotels in Caithness: The Norseman in Wick, The Pentland in Thurso and The Castletown in Castletown. Last year, his electricity costs for these three high street hotels were £76,764. In September, he had a quote that increased the cost of that electricity by £25,000, which is 33%. Today, he had a quote of an increase of £53,000, which is a 70% increase. Can you believe that, Ms Nokes? That takes his electricity bill for those three important town centre businesses from £76,764 a year to £130,000. He is faced with a problem that he does not know how he will cope with.

In fairness, that matter is not the Minister’s responsibility, but I will be writing to Her Majesty’s Treasury to say that we have a huge problem. We need to park party politics on this subject completely and utterly, because this is about power and the cost of power. If that is happening in my constituency, in a remote part of the highlands, it could be happening in constituencies all over the UK. We have to be very careful about this; it is a serious issue. One has unwelcome emails from time to time; this was one for me today.