High Streets

Janet Daby Excerpts

Tuesday 19th October 2021 Westminster Hall

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered support for UK high streets.

It is a pleasure to serve under you as Chair, Ms Nokes.

I am grateful to be granted today’s debate at a time when the UK’s high streets are collapsing. They are collapsing under the weight of pandemic closures and unreasonable taxation. Shopkeepers, their staff and customers alike are experiencing a poorer standard of living. They need the Minister to step up and promise to give them the support that they need. They need to be able to breathe a sigh of relief after 19 months of uncertainty and fear. They need to believe that things can indeed get better.

We all have memories of our favourite shops when we were younger—I know I do—whether a favourite bakery, sweet shop or joke shop. However, sadly, many of those places are no longer around for my children to enjoy. Some of the most iconic, big-name retailers even of the last decade have vanished from our high streets: Woolworths, British Home Stores, Debenhams and Littlewoods all spring to mind.

[Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Ind)]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing today’s debate. Over the past few years, as the hon. Lady has said, we have seen an increase in businesses moving away from physical retail space to an online model. The move has benefited retailers at the top levels of their companies, as it comes with associated savings in areas such as business rates or, for us Scots, non-domestic rates. Such moves, however, have a heavy impact on local communities: fewer jobs, for example, or a lack of accessibility.

[Margaret Ferrier]

Yes, Ms Nokes. Would the hon. Member agree that the Government should incentivise retailers to maintain a physical presence?

[Janet Daby]

I thank the hon. Member for a really important and significant intervention. All the points that she has mentioned are very pertinent. There is a lot that the Government could do to make improvements.

Even big household names could not operate under the Conservative Government’s business rates. No one 20 years ago would have been able to fathom the end of Topshop—never mind the collapse of the entire Arcadia empire, leading to over 700 job losses and units being left to decay. The growth of online retail has slashed footfall in high streets and town centres, benefiting online giants like ASOS and Amazon and crushing local independents. There is still no commitment from the Government to an online sales tax, which would level the playing field. While major online businesses pay only nominal taxes, bricks-and-mortar small businesses are taxed into extinction. How can the Minister justify that?

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate. I have been in the House a long time. In 1981, Mrs Thatcher introduced a windfall-profit tax on the banks. Is my hon. Friend thinking of a similar windfall-profit tax on the people who have profited in the covid years, to get them to pay proper levels of tax to invest in our local communities?

[Janet Daby]

I was in primary school at the time that my hon. Friend Gentleman mentions, but I thank him for the intervention. We need a fair tax system, and I will address that in my speech.

I see the effects of the system of business taxation play out in my constituency of Lewisham East. Taxation is simply too high for small and medium-sized enterprises, especially after an insurmountable fall in revenue since March 2020. The current system of business taxation is outdated and unfair. It punishes small businesses aspiring to serve local communities and allows online empires to grow only stronger. In 2019, it was estimated that the eight largest tech companies operating in the UK avoided a combined total of £1.5 billion in tax.

A House of Commons public survey found concerns for our high street and ideas for improvement. Clair said that

“it’s sad to see so many town centres looking deserted, as many shops have been forced to close due to rents and rates.”

Kate said:

“There are empty units which make the town look dead”.

Nobody wants a dead town. Jags was concerned about antisocial behaviour rising on high streets when shops are boarded up. When asked what the Government could do to turn around prospects for high street businesses, Jane simply said:

“Slash taxes for small businesses. Make it worth our while to work the hours we do.”

I agree and Labour agrees.

We need a Government who demonstrate that they are pro-workers and pro-business. A review of all tax breaks needs to happen. The Government need to be serious about investing in a sustainable way that allows home-grown businesses to flourish and ensures the best value for the taxpayer. The local high street is for leisure, but for some it is a lifeline. Almost half of the people living in London use their local area daily. My constituents rely on local shops. They do not want to have to do a laborious journey on public transport or drive through busy London to run their errands. This applies especially to those living with disabilities or pushing prams, or to elderly people struggling with walkers. Why should their lives become more difficult when people wish to shop local and local people wish to work local?

It is not just a problem in cities. High streets that are a centre point for towns across the country are being neglected. A thriving high street can be a source of great pride and a declining one can be shameful. When an area is in decline, property prices fall, the young professionals move out of the area and the local environment begins to decay. We see poverty intensifying and becoming more visible.

The recent trend of high-street bank closures is especially concerning. According to the House of Commons Library, in the past nine years almost 40% of high-street bank branches have closed their doors. In the year between March 2020 and March 2021, 700 branches have closed. That is staggeringly high. I can see the effects in my constituency. The Catford HSBC branch always has queues going out the door, yet it is due to close, which is absurd. The branch is needed because not everyone can adapt easily to online banking. Not everyone has broadband or the support to make the transition to online. It excludes a huge swathe of vulnerable people. All of those customers now need to go into the centre of Lewisham, adding pressure to that branch. A branch of Barclays in the area has already closed. I wonder why the Minister thinks this trend is developing and whether he agrees with it. Will he support my call for HSBC to reconsider this closure?

We should not expect the general public to be comfortable with doing everything online. Local places closing means familiar and trusted people and services are disappearing. It also deprives people of those small moments of human contact, which may seem like nothing to one person, but to another are the tipping point into social isolation. It is essential to people’s wellbeing that in-person services continue. I would be grateful to hear from the Minister what can be done.

While I want to focus today on the burden that the Government’s tax rates place on our struggling businesses, we cannot ignore the impact of the shortage of HGV drivers on our high streets. This is a Brexit-induced crisis that was completely foreseeable. Coupled with the lack of workers to tend to our crops and farm animals, shops have experienced dire product levels on their shelves. High-street cash and carries are struggling to serve their customers. We are also hearing reports of pressure building towards Christmas. When it comes to Christmas, we know it is serious. Most British households want a turkey—I want a turkey—but not every family that wants one will get one, and that is the headline. This comes at the same time as the shocking news of a labour shortage, meaning that pigs are being slaughtered and their meat is unsellable. We all need supply chains freed up and workers trained up so that the embarrassing lack of stocks can be resolved and a Christmas dinner crisis averted.

The Mayor of London has put vision into action to inject new life into our high streets. He is creating vibrant shopfronts for vacant properties, supporting start-ups and keeping the streets clean and appealing. However, there is only so much that local leaders can do. We need a Government to show up and show that they back businesses, workers and communities.

[Caroline Nokes (in the Chair)]

There are not as many Members as I first feared, so an informal guidance for about five minutes would be very helpful.

--- Later in debate ---

[Janet Daby]

I am grateful to everyone who has contributed to today’s debate. Many vital concerns have been raised. The hon. Member for Truro and Falmouth (Cherilyn Mackrory) talked about her thriving high streets, while acknowledging that there have been struggles and the need to improve rural and coastal areas. My hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley East (Stephanie Peacock) talked about the impact of the support that is needed for high streets because the pandemic has affected poorer areas, which cannot be denied, but also about the cuts that her council has experienced and the impact that that has had on her area. Lewisham council has also experienced significant cuts of £200 million since 2010.

The hon. Member for Stockton South (Matt Vickers) spoke about the decades of challenges for high streets and agreed about the need to tackle the outdated business rates regime and crime in high streets where shops have closed down. My hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) spoke about high streets, closed shops and the need to bring life back to those areas. She spoke passionately about bringing families back into the area; where there are families and children, there is always a lot of spending because children make the wonderful demands that they do.

The hon. Member for Hyndburn (Sara Britcliffe) spoke about the well-documented decline in high streets, which are a shadow of their former selves, and the loss of civic pride. I hope that those areas win the levelling-up funding they have bid for. The hon. Member for Midlothian (Owen Thompson) spoke about bank closures and said that money spent locally stays locally; I could not agree more. The hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) also spoke about money needing to be spent locally; more significantly, he spoke about the astounding increase in electricity bills that hotels have received and how that desperately needs to be addressed. Again, I could not agree more.

My hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) spoke about his excellent Labour council and the ambitious urban park development that is going on there—all gratitude to the council. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) spoke about how high streets have suffered and how unemployment has increased. The hon. Member for Glasgow Central (Alison Thewliss), whose area I know quite well, spoke about the loss of many big shops, but is confident that the city has a strong strategy for improvement.

There has been much agreement in the Chamber on many of the issues that I and others have raised, and we agree there is a need for the decline not to spiral out of control. The BBC reported that, in the first six months of this year, about 50 shops were closing every single day on our high streets. I sincerely hope that, when the statistics come in for the second half of this year, the circumstances will have changed.

I had hoped to hear the Minister talk about business rates and the review of business rates. That theme was very obvious in many of the speeches and in the questions that were asked. I hope that he will return to his Department and review this, because we need a modern form of taxation—one that means that businesses do not just survive but soar. I would like him to go back and produce measures to ensure that jobs are on the increase and strengthened and that entrepreneurs are rewarded. We all have high streets that we want to be proud of, in towns and cities and rural areas and coastal areas, and we all want to see continued improvements in our area.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered support for UK high streets.