The Labour Party has recently announced the launch of its very own campaign directed solely at returning the UK high street to its halcyon days . The campaign, is a battle cry to all those who hold the famous British high street close to their hearts and is a ‘calling for urgent action to help retailers, protect jobs and give people a real say over their local high street.’
The campaign leaflet, which can be viewed athttp://www.labour.org.uk, states: ‘According to the Local Data Company, 14.6% of retail premises in the UK are now vacant, indicating that approximately 50,000 high street units are empty, with vacancy rates rising. The Javelin Group has predicted that if current trends continue, a quarter of all non-food retail outlets in the UK could be vacant by 2020. This also follows a recent spate of household-name high street retailers going under or having to close premises.’
The campaign leaflet goes on to claim that as a result of the governments VAT hike, consumer spending remains very low, with the British Retail Consortium predicting that the VAT increase could potentially cost 163,000 retail jobs over the course of the next four years.
As a result, the Labour Party has announced their four point plan for rescuing the British High Street:
1) Cut VAT from 20 per cent, down to 17.5 per cent, which will save families upto £450 per year, allowing them to put this capital back into the economy.
2) Place communities in charge of the planning of their local high streets. Meaning, ‘Local people and local retailers would have a say on any retail plans for their area.’
3) Create a ‘competition test’, which would lead to a greater choice and lower prices for shoppers.
4) Allow councils to use empty retail commercial property space to pursue community initiatives.
Regarding the initiative, Jack Dromey MP, Labour’s Shadow Local Government Minister, said: ‘We need to put the heart back into Britain’s high streets. Labour wants to give communities a real say over the future of their high street and the power to make the changes they want.’
