Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to encourage people to shop locally.

We are supporting local shopping through targeted campaigns, business rates relief and programmes that help high streets adapt and thrive; and by backing initiatives that encourage people to shop locally. Initiatives such as Small Business Saturday highlight the vital role small firms play in their communities and help drive footfall to local shops.

Later this year we will bring forward a new High Streets Strategy, to reinvigorate our communities. We will work with businesses and representative bodies to pull this Strategy together. It will be a cross-government strategy, and we will be look at what more government can do to support our high streets.