Oral Answers to Questions

Mike Wood Excerpts

Monday 13th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

8. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department’s support for high streets.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

9. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department’s support for high streets.

[Jane Stevenson (Wolverhampton North East) (Con)]

11. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department’s support for high streets.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jake Berry]

What an excellent question; I would like to start by welcoming my hon. Friend to her place, and her question is a sign of the expertise that can be brought into this House when we have people with long experience in local government. She will know that local government can currently retain 50% of business rates revenue growth, and councils are able to work with those retained business rates and see what they can do to improve their local areas. I know that as a new and robust Member of this House my hon. Friend will continue her work with Westminster City Council to make sure that that happens.

[Mike Wood]

Towns like Brierley Hill in Dudley South have struggled to compete with nearby retail parks, and also now increasingly with more shopping moving online. Will my right hon. Friend do everything he can to help towns like Brierley Hill adapt to modern economic challenges and also make those town centres places where people want to be?

[Jake Berry]

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State visited Brierley Hill, I am sure to celebrate the fact that it is one of the first 100 places under our future high street fund to receive £150,000 revenue funding to work on the exciting plans to ensure our high streets are fit for the future. My hon. Friend, who is, I think, still the chairman of the all-party group on beer, will be working very hard to make sure our pubs are protected, and we can have micropubs up and down the land.