TAX CUTS TO PUT HEART BACK INTO BRITAIN
BORIS Johnson is unveiling an ambitious package of tax cuts aimed at saving Britain’s ailing high streets.
The PM vowed to slash business rates for shops and pubs as part of a drive to revitalise struggling town centres battling to compete with online retail giants.
His latest General Election pledge aims to put the “heart back” into Britain. It will mean a cash boost of an average £1,400 for small businesses such as corner shops.
Up to half a million firms will benefit, with the
new business rate discount extended to cinemas and music venues. In a further change, pubs will benefit from a new £1,000 business rate relief to help them continue as vital centres of their communities.
Mr Johnson is also proposing a £500million fund to rebuild local rail links scrapped under the so-called “Beeching cuts” in the 1960s in a major push to reconnect communities.
He wants to set up a £500million Beeching Reversal Fund to restore lines cut under the recommendation of Dr Richard Beeching, a chairman of British Rail influential in overhauling the network in the early 1960s.
Mr Johnson’s latest Tory manifesto promises are designed to show voters the ambitious domestic agenda he wants to implement if he can win a Commons majority on December 12 and end the Brexit paralysis at Westminster. Mr Johnson said: “For too long, too many towns and villages across Britain have been overlooked and left behind.
“When the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, many communities felt their voices had been heard for the first time in decades and their lives would improve.”
He added: “We will invest in these communities and help people put the heart back into the places they call home.
“We need to get Brexit done so that we can unleash the potential of all our towns, cities and villages.
“We will be able to save our high streets, keep pubs and post offices open and reconnect places to the rail network half a century after they were cut off.
“But that can only happen if we end the dither, delay and paralysis in Westminster.
“We need to get Brexit done so the country can move on.We need a Conservative majority government which will deliver for communities across Britain – not a Corbyn-Sturgeon alliance that would expend all its energy on two more chaotic referendums.”
The latest proposals are designed to expand the Towns Fund initiative launched under the Conservatives
to try to revitalise communities left behind by economic growth in affluent metropolitan areas.
Key measures in the package for revitalising high streets include:
● Extending the retail discount on business rates to 50 per cent next year. For businesses with a rateable value of less than £51,000, this will increase the retail discount from 33 per cent to
50 per cent in 2020/21.
This would be an effective £280million annual tax cut which
would help small businesses in particular.
● Cinemas and music venues will qualify for the retail discount on business rates for the first time. The move, costing about £5million, will help keep down their costs.
● Pubs will get a new £1,000 business rate relief to help them stay as vital centres of their communities. The move is effectively a tax cut for pubs, worth £18million annually from next year. Mr
Johnson’s plans will also seek to widen the power of communities in towns and villages to take over assets such as pubs and post offices.
The move builds on the 2011 Localism Act introduced under David Cameron’s Tory-led government, which sought to halt the decline in pubs, village shops, sports grounds and other facilities.
The measure allows threatened amenities to be nominated as “assets of community value”. They are protected from sale for six months to give local groups time to raise funds to take them over.
Mr Johnson’s aims to increase the safeguarding period to nine months. A future Tory majority
government would also support community groups with a £150million fund to help organisations with the costs of preparing bids.
Mr Johnson is also keen to reconnect communities cut off by historic reductions in local rail networks.
Dr Beeching’s controversial 1960s proposals led to thousands of miles of tracks being ripped up and mass station closures, with Britain’s rail network shrinking by 30 per cent.
The Tory manifesto will also promise a new £350million cycling infrastructure fund.
BORIS Johnson understands that reversing the decline of our high streets and town centres must be a top priority for the next government. He has unveiled a raft of policies with the potential to keep shops, cinemas and pubs open if he can secure a majority on December 12.
The Tory leader wants to slash the punishing business rates that have ruined so many valued enterprises across our country.
The average corner shop would get a cash boost of about £1,400 as a result of the latest measures, and music venues would also benefit from a business rate discount.
Such changes are essential if shops are to compete with online rivals, and if our towns are not to become cultural deserts.
The PM is absolutely right to put forward plans to give communities new cash and powers to keep post offices and pubs open.
It is also exciting to hear of proposals for a £500million fund to restore rail links scrapped as part of the much-regretted Beeching cuts of the 1960s.
Mr Johnson appreciates that people throughout Britain despair at the hollowing out of their town centres and the poor quality of transport links.
He has only a handful of weeks to convince the country to get behind his vision of national renewal, but millions of voters will feel relief and excitement that someone with such ambition and passion for his nation is fighting for the top job.