This week’s Budget contained good news for the NHS (and mental health in particular), schools, motorists, the military, taxpayers and the environment but I want to focus on our High Street which is understandably the cause of concern locally in a changing retail environment.
Alongside key local figures, such as WCC finance boss Cllr Guy Ashton, I have consistently said business rates need a fundamental rethink. That remains the case – and we will go on making it - but I am delighted the Chancellor has responded to lobbying from MPs such as myself with an ambitious, and much-needed, boost for local retailers in this Budget.
It is important to stress that here in Winchester, while a dozen of the 300 shops in the city centre are empty, the vacancy rate is actually decreasing and is four times lower than the national average. That doesn’t mean our retailers aren’t struggling however, and I know from talking with many of them, it is business rates which do a lot of the damage.
The Chancellor is well aware (because I tell him regularly) that the recent rates revaluation hit us hard in prosperous Hampshire and he agrees we must never have that cliff-edge again.
That is why we will move to more regular revaluations from 2021 but, more immediately, we will spend some £900m to cut business rates by one-third for the next two years. This is for retailers with a rateable value of under £51,000, saving up to 90% of all shops up to £8,000 each year.
This builds on previous help, worth more than £12.5 billion, which includes the Discretionary Rate Relief Scheme I argued for and local councils administer to target help where it is most needed.
I know from talking to our Chancellor, and his Ministers, that they share my desire to help the High Street as well as precious market towns - such as Alresford - where there is considerable concern at the present time after a handful of closures.
I am committed to working with senior Winchester councillors, such as Rob Humby and Lisa Griffiths, to make the most of our considerable strengths in Alresford and to engage all those, including Town Council and Chamber, who must be part of the solution.
Finally, it is true that austerity is coming to an end but financial discipline certainly is not. We cannot help our businesses, put an extra £394m a week into the NHS or deliver on our promise to raise the Personal Allowance to £12,500 and Higher Rate Threshold to £50,000 one year early, without a strong and growing economy.
That is the clear dividing line in British politics today; a Government taking a balanced approach and getting debt down or the alternative that would raise taxes to the highest level in our peacetime history and send debt soaring – taking us back to square one. That is the reality and we should be very careful before, directly or indirectly, we take the wrong path.
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Steve Brine MP