Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
We need our High Streets to survive and thrive.. for that we need active steps now
Starmer backs our plan
KEIR Starmer backed the Mirror’s High Street Fightback campaign yesterday, calling for action now to save the heartbeat of our towns.
The Labour leader blasted Conservative moves to allow high street buildings to be turned into housing.
And he insisted pay freezes and real terms pay cuts for key workers would hasten the death of town centres.
He also said Amazon and other tech firms must be taxed properly with business rates overhauled to give high street shops a chance.
In an exclusive interview, he told the Mirror: “High streets really matter.
“It’s fantastic that the Mirror runs this campaign and it’s been going for some time. High streets have been struggling for far too long.
“The pandemic has made it even more difficult for high streets so we need them to survive and thrive. If that’s going to happen we need active steps taken now.” The Mirror’s High Street Fightback campaign, launched in 2018, makes 10 demands, including a new tax on online sales and action on business rates, parking charges and public transport.
Mr Starmer added: “We need to stop plans to have low budget housing shoved into our high streets without proper regulation, and we need to sort out business rates.
“The most vibrant high streets are those where local or independent businesses are supported and thrive.
“We don’t want to go down the path the Conservatives have – to simply allow the building of low-quality flats to replace shops.
“The idea of simply filling out high streets with low-cost housing without local say is going to be to the detriment of our high streets for years to come.”
On business rates, he said: “Businesses are effectively being taxed before they have sold or made or done anything.
“The Government has been promising change on this for some time but tomorrow is Tax Day and that would have been an opportunity to do something about it but they have not.
“If you want your high streets to survive you have to make sure there’s money in your economy so people can use their high streets.
“That’s why the Government’s approach of freezing public sector pay, of imposing a real terms pay cut on front-line NHS workers, is so economically illiterate.
“At the very time you need money in your local community and local economy, the Government is taking money out.” Following a visit to shops in Brent in North West London, Mr Starmer told the Mirror the pride and identity of an area lies in its high street, adding: “We cannot afford to lose them and we need them to survive and thrive.”
He said there “has to be a rebalance” in the amount of tax paid by online giants such as Amazon and the business rates paid by high street traders. “We cannot have the likes of Amazon paying such little tax and at the same time a business tax on local businesses that impacts them so disproportionately.
“It needs to be part of a wide consultation and review on tax and we need to get harder on Amazon and that needs to happen as soon as possible.”
Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds yesterday launched a five-point plan to “put communities first” and rebuild high streets on a visit to the West Midlands, as she campaigned ahead of the local elections in May.
She said the Government was planning to “wash its hands” of high streets this summer by “ripping up the rules” giving people a say on what happens in them.
Developers are set to be allowed to convert shops into flats without making a contribution to the local economy, she said. She added: “We would scrap those Conservative plans to sell them off. And we’d go further.
“We would give local councils the power to step in and breathe new life into our high streets, bringing vacant properties back into use, helping to end the blight of empty shops.
“We would establish a high streets fightback fund for those businesses which have been especially hard hit in this last year to get back on their feet.
“Targeted support for those who need it most. And, like Labour-run Wales, nationally we would work to ensure help gets to those businesses and families who really need it.
“Making sure that business rates relief was focused on struggling businesses, not the very biggest supermarkets. And that stamp duty relief didn’t go to those purchasing second homes.”
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