Thursday 25 April 2024 5:30 am | Updated: Wednesday 24 April 2024 1:34 pm

Will it work? Labour’s plan to reconceptualise the high street

Both main parties are guilty of proposing ideas which seem more designed to catch headlines than genuinely address public policy challenges. In this column I take policies on their own terms and ask whether they solve the problem they’re supposed to solve.

This week, we’re looking at Labour’s plan “to breathe life into Britain’s high streets“.

What’s the plan?

The plan has five points of action:

Put more police on the streets to crack down on shoplifting
Roll out banking hubs
Reform business rates to balance the playing field between online and bricks and mortar retailers
Crack down on late payments for small retailers
Empower communities with ‘right to buy’ powers to purchase unused high street shops

Reasons to get excited

UK high streets are on their knees. Since 2010 nearly half a million high street jobs have disappeared, while over 20,000 shops have closed. So targeted action is more than welcome and Labour’s fifth point – giving communities ‘right to buy’ powers to purchase empty high street shops – looks genuinely innovative.

Rather than try to hold back the economic tide which is clearly against the high street as we’ve traditionally known it, this could be a plan to reconceptualise the high street as a primarily social, rather than economic, space.

This could solve multiple problems at once. We are, as individuals, ever more isolated, and the decimation of community spaces has done us no favours. Since 2010 we have lost more than 1,000 children’s centres, 800 libraries and 750 youth centres. Some 40 per cent of councils have closed or reduced services at leisure and sports centres, while community arts facilities face a “national emergency”.

Reconceptualising the high street could revitalise both high streets and communities. This will have benefits across both social and economic sectors, through reduced crime, better mental health, educational outcomes and happier, more cohesive communities.

Cause for concern

Labour’s points 1-4 all sound good, but none of them address the real reasons for this crisis. Whatever ministers say, these reasons pre-date the pandemic. Since 2010 government policy has sucked demand out of the economy. A decade bookended by austerity and the inflation crisis has left most people with (in real terms) less money to spend. The British middle class has gone from being one of the richest in Europe to (on average) £8,800 a year worse off than comparable countries.

It’s not all the fault of government. High street shops have simply been replaced with better alternatives, with online shopping more convenient and better value for many. The high street’s decline is therefore, in substantial part, the inexorable process of creative destruction. Nicking a few more shoplifters won’t stop the inevitable.

Meanwhile point five, while exciting, will only work if government provides the resources. Most community funding comes from local authorities. Councils have suffered real terms cuts of more than a quarter since 2010. If the plan is to work then communities need funds to purchase the buildings, make the necessary alterations and pay people to run them. Community, arts and sports facilities require social workers, artists, cultural leaders, coaches, librarians and lifeguards. All of whom need to be trained and paid, yet Labour’s plan doesn’t include any significant investment.

Indeed, point four (“reform” business rates) could be catastrophic for councils. Business rates need reform: they tax property rather than the total value of the business, so small bricks and mortar outfits essentially subsidise big online retailers. But business rates provide around 10 per cent of local government funding. Any reform needs to come with an alternative revenue plan.