Labour's proposals for high street shops

Local councils should have the power to take over the management of empty shops in their area, the Labour party says.

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said a Labour government would give councils these powers as part of a plan to kickstart the post-pandemic recovery in communities and town and city centres.

She suggested authorities be given the power to repurpose properties that have been vacant for at least 12 months to bring them back into use and said she opposed rules that could allow shops to be sold off for conversion to housing without planning permission, branding it" catastrophic" for local communities.

In a speech to the Institute of Global Prosperity ahead of next week's Budget, Ms D odds said :" Our high streets used to be that beating heart of our local communities and they can be so again. But they have been battered by this crisis and they were already struggling ."

The shadow chancellor said that almost 8,000 shops were lost from high streets in the first half of last year, with one in 10 shops in the UK vacant by July.

She said this mattered not only for jobs, directly and in the supply chain, but because high streets are a "central part" of how people feel about their community.

She said :" People' s spendingand shopping habits have been changing for years but that does that mean we should just abandon our high streets to a sad, disorderly fate. If we act smartly and strategically we can recapture the hearts of our communities and make them part of a better, brighter, greener future."