High Street Rental Auctions

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 26th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Vickers. I thank the hon. Member for Bournemouth West (Jessica Toale) for securing today’s debate. She has been extremely busy today: she asked a question at Prime Minister’s questions, and now she is leading this debate, so well done to her. I should just say that I have not had a PMQ in five years, so she has done really well—[Laughter.] Not that I am disappointed, by the way.

It is a pleasure to participate in the debate, because I am really keen on this scheme. When I saw the title for the debate, I said, “What exactly are they after?” We do not have the scheme in Northern Ireland, but I think I am going to present it to my Minister at the Northern Ireland Assembly and make my local council aware of it, because it could benefit my constituency of Strangford and other constituencies right across Northern Ireland. It shows a way forward; the hon. Lady referred to that, as did the hon. Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm), and others will do the same.

I very much respect the steps the hon. Lady has taken to rejuvenate local high streets and town centres. Those places are the pillars of our communities, and we must ensure that they are protected. I am probably fortunate to have a fairly thriving town centre in Newtownards, although I have recently noticed an increased number of vacancies, which we have not had for a great many years. That tells me that there is a trend starting, and one that we need to be aware of. That is why I want to take this debate a wee bit further, and I will do so.

The Government’s high street rental auction initiative is a great way to improve high street footfall. In my constituency of Strangford, for example, many wonderful community groups and small businesses could really benefit from having a central space to undertake their work. I have some ideas on how we could bring that about through community initiatives, and perhaps with other groups that would be keen to do something in the town.

Of course, as others probably have, I have written to Chick-fil-A, to Popeyes and to some carry-out stores to introduce them to my constituency. They make plans three or four years ahead, so I am hoping that my letters from the last year will bring those names to Newtownards —they are something Northern Ireland has very little of—and that we can advance things. The HSRA scheme does not apply directly to Northern Ireland, or to the devolved nations, but we have a different way of selling our residential and commercial properties. I am therefore keen to hear how this scheme works.

One change I have seen, probably in the last three or four years, has been the increase in online sales. We have many family stores, and one—I will not mention the name of the owner or the store—is a modern clothes store for the modern shopper. It used to sell everything across the counter, but 40% of its business is now across the counter, while 60% is online. Is that one of the things that will be promoted—ensuring that the shops stay and can run their online business from where they are? Again, that is something that I am particularly glad to see.

The hon. Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos) referred to banking hubs. Again, that is something I have been involved with as well. We have lost 11 banks in my constituency. We have lost every bank in Ballynahinch and in Comber—two of our major towns—but, along with the Government, we have been supporting the banking hub initiative. One of the new banking hubs has opened in the middle of Comber, which will bring people to the town centre again from elsewhere in the town and from the countryside. There is another hub planned for Ballynahinch. As I said in a debate this morning, my frustration with banking hubs is that it takes so darn long for them to happen. Banking hubs are a really important alternative to a bank, and we have done some work on that.

When I look back, the negative trend probably started with the covid-19 pandemic, which is terribly frustrating. I understand that Newtownards and Bangor, which are in Ards and North Down, have a 21% vacancy rate on commercial property. That is really worrying, and we have to address it. The vacancies are not all in the town centre—some of them are out of town—but they add to a scenario that is quite worrying.

I will follow up with my council and my Minister about introducing the scheme that the Government have put forward and how that could help, because I believe that the projects that other hon. Members have referred to are worthy of designated funding. I have a special request of the Minister, as I always do of Ministers: could she make contact with the Minister back home, who I am pretty sure would be Gordon Lyons at the Department for Communities, so that Westminster and the devolved Assembly can work together?

The high street rental auctions scheme has many benefits; I have heard about some of them today, and I will hear about more before the debate is over. I look to how we can work together. As I always say—and I say it with genuine sincerity—we might have different ideas in the regions we come from, but we have a united interest in this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and we can share ideas. This is an opportunity to share ideas to help my constituents and help my major town of Newtownards, as well as Comber and Ballynahinch, to do better. If we can do that, this will have been a very good debate.