High Street Retailers Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business and Trade
Jim Shannon
Main Page: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)Department Debates - View all Jim Shannon's debates with the Department for Business and Trade
(1 day, 16 hours ago)
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Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered Government support for high street retailers.
This subject has concentrated minds for a number of years, and we are all affected by the problems associated with high street retailing. In fact, Mary Portas said that the future of the high street will involve
“less retail but better retail”—
that was about three years ago. I am afraid that those who say there are difficulties or problems in the high street are mistaken, because unless towns across the United Kingdom are different from the towns I experience in Northern Ireland, high street retailing is in more than just difficulty. Unless there is dramatic, innovative intervention, the high street in the United Kingdom as we know it will die.
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
I commend my hon. Friend for securing the debate. He is right to say that about the high street, and retailers across this United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are saying the same. Does he agree that the only way for the high street to survive is for it to adapt and move along with the times? That takes technology, innovation and a support system to which Government are committed.
Mr Gregory Campbell
I fully agree with my hon. Friend. Innovation will be the key. In many towns—I am sure that this is applicable across the UK—there are enough coffee shops and charity shops, and both of those are admirable additions to our high streets. In fact, when I am on constituency work, I find coffee shops very convenient, especially if I do not have much time to get a bite to eat. They offer a facility, as do charity shops, but the high street has to be much more than that.
This is not about the higher-end retailing that exists in, for example, Regent Street or Oxford Street, and I say that not to minimise the high streets across our country. They may be doing well—by the looks of Christmas just past, they are doing well in central London—and much of that is down to money that comes in from outside the United Kingdom.