£1.5bn BUDGET BOOST FOR HIGH STREET
BRITAIN’S beleaguered high streets will be promised a £1.5billion cash boost in the Budget, the Treasury confirmed last night.
In response to concern about job losses and shop closures across the country, Chancellor Philip Hammond is to slash business rates by a third for almost half a million small retailers.
He will also propose relaxing planning laws to encourage businesses and launch a new Future High Streets Fund.
His support package for high streets follows the demise of Woolworths and BHS as well as this week’s revelation that Debenhams has made a near £500million loss.
It comes as a massive victory for the Daily Express’s Save Our High Streets crusade, which has been rallying support for measures to support struggling shops.
Mr Hammond’s Budget measures will include £900million of immediate business rate relief for 496,000 small retailers.
The measure is expected to reduce annual bills by about a third and follows nearly £10billion of business rates relief announced by the Treasury since 2016.
Examples of the effects of the measures for small businesses released by the Treasury yesterday estimated that a pub in Sheffield with a rateable value of £37,750 would save £6,178 on business rates next year.
A newsagent in Moseley, Birmingham with a rateable value of £14,250 would save £1,749.
Mr Hammond will also pledge £650million for the Future High Streets Fund which will seek to modernise high streets and ensure they can remain at the heart of the local communities.
It will be designed to help councils and business leaders work together to adapt to changing shopping habits in the era of the online retail boom.
Mr Hammond will also respond to pleas from campaigners and business leaders for a shake-up in town planning rules to allow new mixed-use businesses on the high street and the conversion of under-used retail units into offices and homes.
A new £2million High Streets Taskforce to offer support and advice to help revitalise high streets is also included in the Treasury plans.
Business leaders welcomed the Budget package last night. Hannah Essex, of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “We’re delighted that the Chancellor has heeded our calls to abandon the uprating of business rates for the high street for the next two years, and gone further by cutting bills for the vast majority of high
street firms. It’s crucial that we support our town centres as they find their place in a changing world.
“An alarming number of high street firms, both large and small, are closing or being earmarked for closure.
“This deterioration has cost thousands of jobs since the start of 2018.” Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “In the lead up to the Budget, we’ve been urging the Government to provide targeted support to struggling small firms on our high streets.
“This announcement shows the Chancellor has listened and this relief is a welcome step in getting the urgent help that all small businesses need.
“Small firms are the lifeblood of our high street. They are under a huge amount of pressure with current business rates bills adding to that.”
IT IS expected that the Chancellor Philip Hammond will announce a £1.5billion rescue plan in Monday’s Budget to help the ailing British high street which took another turn for the worse this week with the announcement of the closure of many Debenhams stores.
He will say that business rate bills will be cut by a third for almost half a million small retailers and that there will be a £650million fund to transform Britain’s high streets. This is all about relief in the short term for struggling businesses and a vision of what town centres should look like in the long term.
Another move will see a relaxation of town planning rules to support new mixed-use businesses which will enable unused retail space to be converted into offices and homes.
Hopefully this will not be a case of too little, too late. But no matter how favourable the terms become for retailers it is still inevitable that many customers will prefer shopping on the internet because it is so convenient.
Shopkeepers of outlets big and small must do more to make their premises more attractive. There are plenty of people happy to spend time in the thousands of coffee shops in our towns. So why are they not stepping in to nearby shops? The answer is that many stores are drab and soulless with unhelpful staff who suggest you “go online” if they don’t happen to have the item requested.
With any luck the Chancellor’s injection of cash will bring our high streets back to vigorous health.