Parliament debates town and city centre regeneration – Usdaw welcomes Minister’s response on retail crime and business rates

In a wide-ranging speech seeking an update on the Government’s progress on the five-point plan to support our high streets, Catherine Atkinson MP said: “The whole-Government approach should first include tackling crime and antisocial behaviour to take back our streets, as the Home Secretary says, and take back our town and city centres. When high streets feel unsafe, consumers choose other shopping options—that is how the Association of Convenience Stores puts it. So we need the patrols, the neighbourhood policing and the respect orders to ban persistent offenders from town centres, the removal of the previous Government’s £200 prosecution threshold, and a new, specific offence for assaults on shop workers. I pay tribute to the work of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers and Co-op for their campaigns on that. 

“Secondly, we need support for businesses. That includes reforming business rates to level the playing field between the high street and online giants, tackling late payments, better incentivising investment and supporting entrepreneurship.”

Responding to the debate, Government Minister for Local Growth Alex Norris said: “Combating violence in retail is a personal passion of mine. We know that that type of crime and violence in communities is a doom loop, because it creates more vacancies and makes people less likely to go out, which in turn creates an environment where such behaviour thrives.

“As part of our safer streets mission, we have committed to a neighbourhood policing guarantee that includes returning patrols to town centres; 13,000 more police and police community support officers; and a named officer in every community for people to turn to. We want communities to have their say in how they are used and, most of all, to know who to talk to. To be clear, there will be tools to tackle people who persistently harm their local community—for example, new respect orders that have growing penalties and a specific offence of violence against retail workers. Those measures will make our communities safer to live in, work in and visit.”

On business rates, the Minister continued: “We intend to level the playing field between the high street and online giants to incentivise investment, tackle empty properties and support entrepreneurs in that venture. We are two weeks away from a major fiscal event and any significant tax announcement will be made then by the Chancellor. We have made the commitment we have made. We understand how important the issue of business rates is.”

Paddy Lillis – Usdaw general secretary says: “We welcome Catherine Atkinson calling this much needed debate on the future of retail in town and city centres. It is an issue that every community faces as we’ve seen far too many store closures scarring our high streets and job losses impacting workers and their families. The Minister’s response was welcome and we look forward to the first Budget under
this new Labour Government as an opportunity to address the issues retailers face.

“Job security is a key priority. The retail sector was already struggling before the pandemic and the cost of living crisis made matters much worse. Last year, nearly 120,000 retail jobs were lost and over 10,000 stores closed. We need action to help save our shops and retail jobs.

“Usdaw has long called for a plan for the future of retail, we recently launched a strategy for the industry and called on the Chancellor to bring forward measures that include: fundamental reform of business taxation affecting the retail sector; reform of UK tax law to ensure that companies pay their fair share, and funding for local authorities so they can invest in their local economy. These calls have fallen on deaf ears for the last 14 years under the Tories, today we heard a strong indication that this government is listening.”