Town Centres Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Valerie Vaz
Main Page: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)Department Debates - View all Valerie Vaz's debates with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Town Centres
Valerie Vaz Excerpts(2 days, 20 hours ago)
Westminster HallRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Valerie Vaz (in the Chair)
I will call Luke Murphy to move the motion and then the Minister to respond. There will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up, as is the convention for a 30-minute debate.
Luke Murphy (Basingstoke) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered Government support for town centres.
Thank you for the opportunity to lead this important Westminster Hall debate on the future of Britain’s town centres under your chairship, Ms Vaz. Like so many towns across the UK, my constituency of Basingstoke is grappling with the consequences of years of neglect under successive Conservative Governments and the changing habits and shopping trends of consumers. High streets have suffered from an array of pressures, made worse, not better, by the policies of the previous Administration.
For more than a decade, the Conservatives failed to modernise the business rates system, leaving small businesses disproportionately burdened while allowing major online retailers to shirk paying their fair share. The failure to secure our energy supply and tackle retail crime, and the disastrous mini-Budget, which sent interest rates soaring, stifled the ambitions of our high street businesses, leaving them grappling with higher costs and a lower footfall.