By Nadeem Badshah
BRITAIN’S struggling high streets can be saved by slashing business rates, having more free parking spaces and new business models, according to experts.
The government is running a £3.6 billion fund for “overlooked and undervalued” towns. The high streets will get help from civil servant teams as part of the cash injection.
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick, who is touring each area, said traditional high streets can be saved by innovation, loyalty to local shops and cheaper parking.
But Asian business owners and retail experts believe that more support is needed for firms.
Dinesh Dhamija, a Liberal Democrat MEP who founded online travel agency Ebookers, told Eastern Eye: “These proposals are too little too late. The Lib Dems have been saying that we need to bring business rates down for 10 years.
“Rents are too high. They allow businesses only to make a small profit margin, so if you lose just 10 per cent of trade to the internet this wipes out profits, and shops are losing far more than 10 per cent in trade.
“It’s all very well to introduce free parking and a tax for online-only businesses, but it won’t stop people buying online because it is convenient.
“Perhaps customers can use shops to try things on and take things back [or] perhaps those who shop in-store get an online discount next time. We need to think of totally new business models.”
Under the government plans, 20 pilot areas in England will receive support from the High Streets Task Force before the scheme is rolled out across the country.
The pilot areas will receive face-toface support, access to research, new online training, and local footfall data.
Jenrick went to Wolverhampton in the Midlands in January, the first of his Town Tour visits. The minister said footfall could be boosted with more leisure facilities and digital services in libraries.
Lord Rami Ranger, founder of the Sun Mark brand, said UK high streets were suffering due to online retailers. He told Eastern Eye: “I would like to see business rates reduction to reflect the loss of their business, and ample and free parking offered to shoppers to attract them to our high streets.
“We should also consider making online retailers pay higher taxes as their operating costs are low.”
Retailers have suffered business rates rise totalling almost £170 million this year.
But the Conservatives have said some firms including pubs, cinemas and small businesses will see them halved.
Mike Cherry, national chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said safeguarding the long-term future of high streets was vital for jobs, communities and local economies.
He said: “Small firms up and down the high street are struggling with rising costs – whether that be wages, punitive business rates or the impact of parking charges.
“If we are to really help high street firms into the next decade, then extending measures such as the high streets relief on business rates, as well as a wider review of the system, must be acted on sooner rather than later.
“This comes in addition to local connectivity and infrastructure problems that businesses suffer from, such as potholes, the lack of free parking and poor broadband connections.”
Vidhya Alakeson, the chief executive of Power to Change, an independent trust to support and grow community-led businesses across England, is sceptical about the government’s funding plans.
Alakeson said: “The cash is relatively small given the scale of the challenge.
“Alongside that, to really change things, you need money to support people to do new things, start new businesses. That money isn’t really there.
“It is better than nothing, but it is limited in what it can really achieve. “Business rates reform is important but it’s really a sticking plaster. We need to bring libraries and health centres back to the high street, along with work spaces and housing.”
It comes after Labour leadership candidate Lisa Nandy called for an “urgent” overhaul of business rates, more investment in the retail sector and more protection for shop staff.
The MP for Wigan, Greater Manchester, said: “The government continues to let one of our most important industries wither away. “It’s a serious dereliction of duty. For the sake of the three million people who work in retail, and the countless others who look to their high streets for a sense of pride about where they live, we urgently need to get a grip on this crisis.”
