Plea to save high streets by taxing online sellers

RETAIL boss Mike Ashley called for a tax on internet retailers yesterday in a bid to rejuvenate our high streets.

The Sports Direct chief told MPs the 20 per cent levy should apply to companies where web sales account for over 20 per cent of turnover.

Mr Ashley insisted something “radical” is needed to rescue “dead” town centre shopping zones.

His ideas included more free parking, park and rides, and click-and- collect schemes to entice customers back.

In a lively exchange with the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, Mr Ashley laid bare the grim prospects facing traditional stores.

His comments support the Daily Express’s Save Our High Street crusade.

Mr Ashley, who bought House of Fraser out of receivership for £90million earlier this year, said: “The internet is killing the high street.

“I want to make it clear: The mainstream high street as we think about it today, not the Oxford Streets and the Westfields, is already dead. It can’t survive.”

The Newcastle United FC owner, who also has a £400million online business, claimed the high street as people know it could be gone by 2030, unless we grab “the bull by the horns”.

The billionaire said he has been working around the clock to try to save as many stores and jobs as possible.

Villain

But he urged politicians and landlords to do more to make life easier for retailers.

He said smaller shops are caught up in a “draconian” spiral of rising rents and business rates.

Mr Ashley, who has come under fire in the past over his use of “zero hours” contracts for employees, insisted he was “not Father Christmas”.

Asked if he loses sleep over the prospect of closing stores, he responded with a quip about James Bond arch villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

“I’m not sitting in my office stroking a white cat,” he said. “It’s not my fault the high street is dying. The question is, what to do about it.”

Committee chairman Clive Betts said: “You’ve told us that you’re not a pantomime villain, you’re not Father Christmas. I think you have still left us to decide whether you are the wicked uncle or the fairy godmother and time will no doubt tell.”