Supporting High Streets

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 4th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Liz Jarvis (Eastleigh) (LD)]

Britain’s high streets are the beating hearts of our communities. They serve as social hubs, cultural landmarks and vital sources of jobs and prosperity. Yet in my constituency, as in the rest of the country, our high streets are under immense pressure. Local residents are concerned when they see empty shopfronts in the town centre and in our local shopping centre.

As we know, the growth of online shopping has changed the culture of retail, and that trend has only worsened as a result of the pandemic. According to Eastleigh business improvement district, footfall in Eastleigh town centre is 56% below pre-pandemic figures, which shows the depth of the decline that our high street has faced. Cuts to local bus services by Conservative-controlled Hampshire county council have left many residents without bus services. The impact on our high streets has been an afterthought for the county council, and our local businesses are starting to feel it.

It is not just declining footfall hurting our local businesses; there is also the growing threat of retail crime. According to the Office for National Statistics, shoplifting increased by 13% in the year ending June 2025. I recently met a local retailer who had been the victim of shoplifting and lost thousands of pounds-worth of stock. We have all heard stories of staff members at retail shops being subjected to verbal abuse. The Government must tackle that issue head-on and with more urgency. We need a return to proper community policing to deal with that type of crime, which is why I have long campaigned for the reopening of Eastleigh police station.

Pubs—of which there are 32 in my constituency—are perhaps the greatest symbol of our high streets. They are vital social gathering hubs for people to come together and feel part of their community. According to the British Beer and Pub Association, increases in costs after last year’s Budget mean that pubs now face a 9p loss per pint unless they raise prices by 21p. If the Government continue on this path, we risk losing the very pubs that enrich our high streets.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

The Loft bar in Street—a locally owned and run business—contributes so much to the social fabric of the town but has been crippled by business rates and rocketing utility and national insurance costs. Does my hon. Friend agree that we must support the hospitality sector, through the fundamental reform of business rates, so that it can thrive?

[Liz Jarvis]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point, which I will address shortly.

Independent businesses face an incredibly tough environment. The reduction in retail, hospitality and leisure relief from 75% to 40% effectively leaves small businesses subsidising large chains. We are incredibly lucky to have many thriving independent businesses in Eastleigh, including AC Models, O’Briens, Artisan, the Coffee Cabin and Choices sandwiches. My constituent David, who is the owner of Steam Town Brew Co., told me that higher staffing costs are hitting his business hard. The employer national insurance contributions increase disincentivises businesses from investing in local jobs.

I have also spoken with local hairdressers, including Jemma from Jemma George Hair Artistry and Jane from Elite Salon in Chandler’s Ford, about the challenges they are facing. They are worried about structural flaws in the VAT system for labour-intensive businesses, challenges to the employer model within the industry, and the lingering impact of the covid pandemic. Those small businesses enrich our high streets, but they are having to fight so hard and work incredibly long hours to make themselves viable. We should be celebrating entrepreneurship, not putting more roadblocks in their way.

The previous Government left business rates unreformed, negotiated a disastrous Brexit deal, and oversaw a massive spiral in energy costs, rents and interest rates, all of which piled incredible pressure on high street businesses. So many of the challenges that those businesses are facing have been caused by policy choices made over the past decade. For all of the Reform party’s showboating, we have seen no coherent plan from it. Indeed, its Members have not even bothered to show up to this debate.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for business rates to be replaced with a commercial landowner levy, so that we tax the land value, not the productive investment. That would give struggling high streets the breathing space that they desperately need. It is wrong that households and high streets are being punished while big banks, gambling companies and social media giants get away without paying their fair share. We must shift the tax burden away from small and medium-sized businesses and on to those with the broadest shoulders.

Our communities deserve better than short-term stunts and uncosted Tory headlines. They deserve a long-term plan to revive our high streets, restore pride in our towns and put small businesses at the centre of Britain’s economic recovery.