Time to fight for our high streets

■ Empty stores mean shopping on the high street is no longer something to enjoy. It also means no rent for landlords, job cuts and less business rates paid to the local authority. Out-of-town malls have played a part in the realignment of shopping habits, as has the rise of online shopping.

Big businesses should not be allowed to hide behind out-of-date tax legislation and must be forced to pay up in the countries where they actually have customers. The Government must review the whole complex situation as fundamental changes are needed, but I have no faith in Johnson’s lot doing anything constructive. In the meantime, our towns will continue to get more bars, tattoo parlours, vape shops, pound shops and boarded up shopping arcades – hardly tempting.

Jan Kiff, Sutton, Gtr London

■ We read about and can see for ourselves the sad decline of the high street with many shops closing down and units standing empty. But I do wonder if some shops are doing all they can to help themselves. Having been briefed by my daughter about what my grandaughter wanted for her birthday, I looked online and found it on the website of a well known high street retailer for half price. But when I went into the shop to buy it, the item was full price and was told it was an online offer only. So, I drove home and bought it online instead.

Sheila Fox, Crawley West Sussex

■ The high street needs a level playing field with the online retailers. One way to achieve this would be for the Government to consider a parcel tax paid by the person ordering the online delivery.

At the moment people use high street stores to look for items which they then buy online, so things need to be more balanced.

Also, as the number of online retailers increases, next day delivery will turn into two days as more vans hit the roads and traffic becomes even more congested. Jonathan Griffiths, via email

■ I think MPs of all parties should get together and come up with a plan to reverse this worrying trend. The problem is that as our towns become less attractive places to shop – with more boarded up premises, budget stores and betting shops – then the public will just stop going at all.

C Brewer, Barnsley, South Yorks

■ Government action is needed to save our high streets before it’s too late, but in the meantime the public could do their bit by choosing to shop in store rather than online.

As has been said before, it’s a case of use it or lose it. It’s depressing to see the current state of our once thriving town centres.

M Thorpe, Darlington, Co Durham

■ The decline of Britain’s high streets is sad. I remember when our town centres and markets were packed, but shopping has moved online and that genie won’t be put back in the bottle.

We now need bold ideas to regenerate our high streets.

John Cutts, Stockport Gtr Manchester

■ Surely, the simplest thing to do to help the high street is to cut rents. The reason we have so many shops closing down is because the rent is too high.

Brian Russell, Swansea