Independent Retailers

Debate between Simon Danczuk and Geoffrey Cox

Wednesday 24th November 2010 Westminster Hall

[Mr Cox]

My hon. Friend’s experience is, I think, replicated in dozens of constituencies around the country, and I fully understand her concern. What I am asking for is a co-ordinated approach. The Departments for Communities and Local Government and for Business, Innovation and Skills, and the Treasury, need to get together and think about the high street as a separate issue. That would include looking at planning decisions and guidance, and considering what we could do about charity shops, for example.

[Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)]

I, too, congratulate the hon. and learned Gentleman on securing this very important debate. I also congratulate the Government on producing their document about a health check in town centres and on the high street. It is a valuable document, and of good use.

On charity shops, I had a look at the hon. and learned Gentleman’s website before I came here today. It rightly says that charity shops are better than empty shops, and I agree, but the proliferation of charity shops in my constituency of Rochdale has reached the point at which they become a problem. So in respect of planning regulations, I urge the Minister and the Government to consider giving local authorities the power to determine the number and location of charity shops in their areas.

[Mr Cox]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman, to a large extent. The main issue that I have heard is that charity shops are selling new goods. More and more charity shops are setting up on the high street, and instead of selling the donated goods of many hundreds and thousands of well-wishers, they are selling a whole range of brand-new goods—often sports goods and clothing.

It is not hard to understand the chagrin, confusion, dismay and disappointment of a shopkeeper, selling the same product lines, on hearing that the charity shop next door has been given not only the mandatory 80% relief, but the other 20% that the local authority can give. The charity shop might, therefore, be paying no rates at all. Its waste is treated as commercial, but the private shopkeeper is unable to have their waste treated thus, and it would seem to the struggling shopkeeper—who, after all, will be here in many years and is supplying a vital service for the community, bringing about a sense of well-being and contributing to the local economy—that the playing field is not even.

I do not suggest, as the hon. Member for Rochdale (Simon Danczuk) noted, that we should be anti-charity-shop, but I do propose to the Minister that we need to look at a protocol for local authorities, which would allow them to consult local shopkeepers about the product lines that might be sold in a charity shop. Such consultation would help, but equally we need to look at whether charity shops that are selling brand-new goods should receive the rate relief that they currently do.