Jessica Toale

I thank my hon. Friend and neighbour from Poole for the intervention. I certainly hope that our local authority will take an ambitious approach and I am working very closely with it to help it to identify areas within Bournemouth town centre. BCP council has expressed concern about the cost of having to implement such measures, and the potential for expensive legal challenges it may face as a result. I would be grateful if the Minister would outline how we can mitigate some of those issues, and how the £1.5 million that has been set aside is intended to be used. I underline that this is a moment for action. The powers granted to local councils are a great step forward, but we need to ensure that the changes are not simply superficial. We must think about how we can make our high streets and the commercial offering work for everyone —for businesses, our communities and the economy as a whole. I will continue to champion the revitalisation of our high streets in Parliament; by working together, we can ensure that our high streets become the thriving, vibrant centres that they were always meant to be. It is fantastic to see my hon. Friends the Members for Bassetlaw (Jo White) and for Mansfield (Steve Yemm), and my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Lola McEvoy) was meant to be here as well. Their local authorities are also early adopters of the scheme. I look forward to hearing their contributions and to continuing this important conversation. I also encourage other Members to speak to their own local authorities and push them to join this initiative. We have a real opportunity to break the vicious cycles that I mentioned at the beginning of this speech, and to turn them into virtuous circles, where we fill our shops, increase footfall, reduce antisocial behaviour, and again build pride in our town centres and high streets across the country.