High street traders neeed a level playing field with ‘online giants’

Banks are leaving, shops are closing and charity shops are filling empty properties.

This is a pattern being replicated up and down the country and there a multiple reasons for this sudden change.

There is no doubt that the digital age has changed our shopping habits forever.

Many people will recognise it is often far easier for those leading busy lives to pick up their mobile phone and order their weekly shop, and almost anything imaginable rather than take a trip to the local high street.

However this change in consumer habits is coupled with the unfair advantage that online businesses have over traditional high street retailers.

High street businesses are lumbered with sky-high business rates for their premises that are often one of, if not, their largest expense.

Online businesses are often based out of warehouses and distribution centres outside of the expensive town and city centres.

Recently in Parliament I raised this issue with the Chancellor of the Exchequer as having spoken to a number of businesses across the constituency I know it is a concern for them.

It is also a concern for our local pubs which also have to pay the expensive of business rates just because they are based on the high street.

I asked the Chancellor if he would consider changing the business rate system from its current property value based system to one that is based on the number and value of transactions that a business makes.

I and many of my colleagues believe that this would level the playing field between traditional high street retailers and online giants that are currently not paying their fair share.

A system based on transactions would ensure that small independent high street retailers are paying what they can afford rather than being penalised for having a property in a prime location in the centre of a town or city.

This system that I am calling for would also ensure that large online retailers, many of whom avoid paying other forms of taxes through legal loopholes and strategic accounting and avoid business rates, would be paying tax each time they make one of their many sales in the UK.

I will continue to support local businesses by urging the government to make this necessary change.