High Streets

Matt Vickers Excerpts

Tuesday 19th October 2021 Westminster Hall

[Matt Vickers (Stockton South) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Nokes. I thank the hon. Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby) for securing this important debate.

As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on the future of retail, and as a former “Woolies” worker, this is an issue about which I care passionately. During the pandemic, while many retreated to the safety of their own homes, our retail workers rolled up their sleeves and got on with the job. For that, we owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

The challenges faced by our high streets are not new; we have been debating them for decades. The events of the past year have amplified and accelerated those difficulties. I know that the Treasury threw the kitchen sink at supporting businesses during the pandemic, whether through the furlough scheme, the rates holiday or the grants scheme. Those measures have been a life- line for many businesses in my patch.

The role of our high streets is changing, and to help our town centres adapt and change, the Government have rightly been flooding them with funding, including the future high streets fund, the town deals, the levelling-up fund and any other such schemes. In my part of the world and that of the hon. Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham), Stockton has received £16.5 million of funding to build a high street that is fit for the future; Thornaby has received a £23.9 million town deal that will, among other things, help tear down a defunct hotel that has been an eyesore in the town centre for years; and our levelling-up bid for up to £20 million would help to improve Yarm’s high street. I remain incredibly grateful for that, but there is more to high streets than slick buildings and shiny objects, and that is the businesses that give our high streets a soul.

This afternoon, I met the British Retail Consortium and the CEOs of a huge number of retailers. The biggest single issue raised, which is life or death for many stores in our high streets, was business rates: 83% of retailers feel that they are likely to close stores in the near future if the burden of business rates is not reduced. The business rates regime is simply not fit for purpose. Business rates are outdated: they strangle growth and smother investment. They disproportionately whack the retail and hospitality sectors. Retailers account for 5% of the economy but are subject to 25% of all business rates.

We must do more to tackle crime in our high streets and town centres. Last year, there were 455 assaults on shop workers not every month or every week but every single day. That is the young student in their first job or the semi-retired person topping up their income. I am delighted that the Government have recognised the issue and are looking at it, but we need action and we need it now. We must do more. Many in the retail and hospitality sector are innovative and optimistic. They are ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century, to grow, to provide jobs and to breathe life into our town centres. They can only do that if the Government reduce the burden of business rates, ensure that retail crime is tackled and support innovation in the sector.

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[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Nokes. I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby) on securing the debate.

Our high streets, the beating hearts of our neighbourhoods, are in danger, threatened by low footfall, an outdated model for business rates, the impact out out-of-town and online shopping and a Government who have failed to tackle the growing crisis. Against that challenging backdrop, I have a small kernel of hope to share, thanks to the visionary work of our Labour-led Stockton council and the odd handout from the Government as well.

To quote my good friend, Councillor Nigel Cooke:

“This is an existential threat we are facing. If people are not coming into town to shop at Debenhams because there is no Debenhams, there is no Marks & Spencer and so on, what are they going to come in to do?...You have to be proactive and have some ambition.”

Fortunately, Stockton council has ambition in bucketloads. It has bought the old Castlegate shopping centre so that it can be torn down, opening up space in the town centre to build a vast urban park, a library and a leisure centre, linking Stockton town centre with the beautiful waterfront of the River Tees.

[Matt Vickers]

I agree and I am sure the hon. Gentleman is about to tell us that it is a great thing that the Globe is reopening and coming back to the old high street, but would it not have been better if it had opened in 2012 and cost £4 million rather than opening this year and costing the best part of £30 million? Public money needs to be well spent.

[Alex Cunningham]

Public money does need to be well spent, and it was not exactly all public money that went to it, but that is another matter. I will not have anyone talking down my town and the ambition of our local council. The Globe is one of the finest art deco theatres in the country, and it has hosted everyone from the Beatles to Stevie Wonder—I know that appeals to my generation, rather than to some of the younger Members here. It has been refurbished and reopened, and it is the biggest venue between Newcastle and Leeds, so all the big acts are now following us into town.

Just a couple of weeks ago I visited Drake the bookshop to support Bookshop Day. Thanks to Stockton’s ambition, the bookshop has been able to expand. The council’s vision puts the wellbeing of our constituents at its heart, with the focus on supporting events, green space and independent shops more than paying off. Other local authorities are now knocking on Stockton’s door for the blueprints. Even Tory Ministers come to Stockton to see how it is done.

However, councils cannot be left to do it on their own. They should not have to spend so much time bidding to centralised funding pots. The administration of the £3.6 billion towns fund, for instance, still causes me serious concern. I can understand why Billingham in my constituency was deemed to be in greater need than Tory MPs’ towns, but I cannot understand why it has missed out.

[Alex Cunningham]

I will not, if the hon. Member does not mind.

A town in the previous Secretary of State’s constituency, which was 270th on the list, was successful. Yet Billingham was not, despite being much higher up on the list.

[Matt Vickers]

Will the hon. Member give way?

[Alex Cunningham]

No, I will not give way.

Many of the people who actually make our high streets great are crying out for urgent business reform, which is something the hon. Member for Stockton South (Matt Vickers) and I very much agree on. Again, here Labour has the necessary vision that the Government lack. Labour would scrap business rates altogether, and in the meantime we would freeze them and extend the threshold for small business rates relief next year. Labour would pay for these measures by increasing the UK digital services tax to 12%, making a more level playing field between online and bricks-and-mortar shops. There are solutions out there to make radical change, and I would be very pleased to show the Minister around my home town of Stockton so that he can see how it is done.