LABOUR PLAN TO REVITALISE HIGH STREETS
‘Level playing field’ demand
LABOUR will demand the Government creates a taxation level playing field between high streets and online giants.
Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds will kick off the party’s local elections campaign with a five-point plan to “put communities first”.
The Mirror has championed town centres with our High Street Fightback campaign.
Ms Dodds will speak in Birmingham, where Labour ex-minister Liam Byrne will try to take the mayoralty from Tory former John Lewis boss Andy Street in May.
She will condemn the Conservatives for “washing their hands” of high streets over the past decade. She will commit Labour to stopping the Government selling them off for low-quality housing and empowering councils to fill empty shops with new businesses. And she will challenge ministers to level the tax playing field between high street firms and online companies while calling for a fightback fund to help high streets hit by the pandemic.
Ms Dodds will say: “We can’t continue with a situation where five US tech firms account for £1.3billion in lost corporation tax every year, while shops pay rates under a system that hasn’t been reformed for years.”
Her plan could be overshadowed by Unite boss Len McCluskey warning Sir Keir Starmer he will be “dumped into the dustbin of history” if he continues to attack the party left. He said: “We are suffering because people don’t understand what Keir Starmer or what Labour stands for.” oliver.milne@mirror.co.uk
@OliverMilne
HIGH streets will die unless revived and given a fighting chance against online rivals such as Amazon, which pays nowhere near the same amount of tax.
Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds will today put defeatist Conservative ministers to shame with her ideas and passion.
Boarded-up shops covered in graffiti or converted into low-quality housing would only accelerate the decline. Big thinking is key.
This includes decent taxes raised from the likes of Amazon to turbo-charge the economic hearts of Britain’s cities and towns.
The Mirror’s High Street Fightback campaign has called for a level playing field but it is sadly still uneven, because the Government’s words on the issue are so rarely supported by action.
People living in areas with once-vibrant shopping centres that are now run-down know more than most the value of lively high streets.
Let’s save and revive these vital places.