How high streets can recover from pandemic – Clive Betts

Before the pandemic struck, reviews from figures including Bill Grimsey pointed the way forward for high streets, and Sir John Timpson’s report emphasised the need for a locally driven approach with less retail and more mixed- use town centres.

Long-term, locally led regeneration is important and it is clear many of our high streets are desperately in need of investment. But the solution can’t be for Whitehall to haphazardly throw money at the problem – we need Government to have the courage to put in place long-term reliable funding for local areas and hand over greater local control of how it’s spent.

In our Committee’s report this 
month on supporting our high streets after Covid-19, we say the Government’s current approach to funding town 
centre regeneration is too complex, 
short-term and fragmented to be effective.

The Government’s method of dangling a series of cash pots for local areas to compete with each other – the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the Towns Fund, Levelling-Up Fund, Community Ownership Fund, Community Renewal Fund – leaves the losers empty-handed, of course, but it also hampers strategic local planning.

The unreliability and unpredictability of this approach leaves local areas in a weaker position to build sustainable high streets and deliver growth to our town centres – we argue a better solution exists by devolving funding and by empowering local authorities.

Extending pavement licences was a positive measure from Government to help hospitality businesses. Local authorities should have the freedom to look at measures which develop social and cultural amenities, or focus on green space, like in Stockton-on-Tees. Shopping will have its place, but retail can’t be the bedrock of our high streets in the future.

It’s clear we need to rethink our high streets, with more health and well-being, more green spaces and facilities for hybrid working, but also housing, culture, arts and entertainment too, as well as retail and hospitality. Many areas have gone beyond the conversion of the odd shop to flats but need wholesale demolition of older shopping areas and development of new attractive housing.

This type of re-imagining requires planning in the round, with collaboration between local councils, business partners, and the local community. Government should look at how it can support local authorities to develop these types of strategies – and it should publish annually a list of which areas have strategies for their high streets and town centres and when they were last updated.

The business rates holiday for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses was a welcome response from Government but they should re-examine the case for long-term reform. Business rates, calculated using the value of a company’s premises, are unfair and outdated. Reforms to business rates which get rid of the need for a complicated system of reliefs while not reducing income for local authorities are long overdue.

The move to online shopping has been accelerated by the pandemic. In our report, we support the principle of an online sales tax, and the Government’s consultation must consider how proceeds from the tax can off-set business rates for retailers.

Many of us appreciate the benefits of online shopping – and consumer trends point firmly in that direction – but, for the future of our high streets shops, it’s important we level the playing field with an online sales tax while also considering how Government can support smaller retailers through targeted investment.

The Government should embark immediately on a ‘‘lessons learned’’ review, examining the impact of the handling of the pandemic on the high street. It’s vital the Government is alert to the continuing effects on our town centres, that it is monitoring the impact of the full range of Covid-19 business support that affects the high street, and that it is prepared to adjust that support if necessary. High streets matter to all of us. Over the course of the pandemic, through increased home-working, many of us have rediscovered our local shops and enjoyed the convenience and sense of community that comes from supporting local entrepreneurs and family businesses.

While the march of online retail continues, there is a renewed sense of localism in many communities too. Local businesses may face a difficult Christmas and there are challenges ahead for our high streets. But by devolving funding and powers locally, and by giving councils the tools to plan holistically and strategically for the long-term, we can hope to build the vibrant high streets of the future which we can all enjoy.

Clive Betts is chair of Parliament’s Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee and Labour MP for Sheffield South East.

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