Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to encourage local small businesses to set up on the high street.

This Government is committed, through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, to reinvigorate high streets and town centres and ensure local economies thrive and evolve. This new legislation will play an important role in reviving our high streets by introducing High Street Rental Auctions (HSRAs). HSRAs will empower places to tackle decline by bringing vacant units back into use and will seek to increase cooperation between landlords and local authorities, and to make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable for tenants, including SMEs, local businesses and community groups.