We have to find a way of reviving the High Street. We all know this, and it is profoundly depressing to walk down a once-thriving town centre, only to see a string of boarded-up storefronts, interspersed with a few charity shops.
Andy Burnham understands this, saying they have been ‘hollowed out’ by vape stores, betting shops and rogue businesses.
He’s announced a string of measures supposed to revive them, including closing planning loopholes, shutting ‘dodgy businesses linked to organised crime’, and giving local people ‘a real say over what opens on their High Street’.
It all sounds fine until you look at the detail. Retailers are deeply critical of the Government’s policies so far, especially the rise in business rates, fuel costs and additional labour costs.
Helen Dickinson, head of the British Retail Consortium, put it bluntly: ‘Retailers don’t need warm words, they need lower costs.’
