Act now and throw our high streets a lifeline

THE word decimation has its origins in Ancient Rome from the brutal practice of killing one in 10 people as a punishment. We use the word now to highlight widespread destruction or damage but what is happening to jobs on our high streets has echoes of both meanings.

The warning carried by this newspaper today that one in 10 jobs on the high street could be lost as a result of the fallout of coronavirus – an actual jobs decimation – should strike horror in us all.

This is not just 300,000 out of a total three million workforce losing their livelihoods but a real hollowing out of our communities leaving our town and city centres as boarded up shells.

Of course, the rot has been setting in for a long time which is why the Daily Express has been campaigning for a number of years to save it. Coronavirus has hastened an economic decline that was happening anyway. But this does not mean it should and could not be reversed.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak must not oversee the final death of the high street by standing back and doing nothing. He needs to bring in urgent support to save it.

This means abolishing unfair business rates and bringing in a replacement tax that equally includes online retailers such as Amazon.

It also means ending the scourge of car parking charges and other impediments to shoppers going to the high street.

It also means supporting high streets into diversifying and changing to become attractive destinations.

Napoleon once called us a nation of shopkeepers, sadly that won’t be remotely true if nobody is shopping any more.

Proper support for the high streets has been delayed for too long and if we do not act now then it will be too late.