Peter Lamb MP: Saving the High Street
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Since its inception five years ago, the Town Centre Business Improvement District has worked hard to run events which draw footfall into the town centre and address the issues facing local businesses. The fact that the vacancy rate of local shops is now down to 8% suggests that they’re doing something right.
Of course, we know that in reality retail is struggling everywhere and we have certainly seen the impact of this in Crawley with the collapse of Debenhams and the downsizing of M&S, costing the town centre two of its largest stores.
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Hide AdUltimately, this is part of a global pattern, with internet sales and out of town retail robbing town centres of much of the custom which would have previously sustained them.


While we can’t hold back the passage of time, central government can at least help to level the playing field. Business rates are one of the UK’s oldest forms of taxation, providing a local charge on businesses by the types of properties they occupy. At the time they were introduced the most profitable units would have been those in town centres and consequently the system places high levels of rates on such businesses.
By contrast the warehouses internet companies operate from are rated comparably lowly. The end result is that struggling shops are being taxed far more heavily than the warehouse-operations putting them out of business.
At the General Election, amongst other measures designed to save the high street, Labour pledged to replace business rates with a fairer system. The new system unveiled this week will not only reduce rates for retail, hospitality and leisure, but put a much higher level on high-value properties such as internet company warehouses.
Having called for this change for many years, I’m delighted. The high street may not yet have been saved, but it has just been given a massive boost.