Mr Douglas Alexander

Along with every Member who has spoken in this debate, the Government want to support strong, thriving, mixed-use high streets that generate high footfall and high degrees of social capital in their local communities. That is why we are focused on a five-point plan to breathe life back into local high streets—high streets that, if we are candid, have faced challenges from changing retail patterns for some decades now. The plan includes addressing antisocial behaviour and retail crime—an issue raised by a number of people around the Chamber—as well as reforming the business rates system, working with the banking industry to roll out banking hubs, stamping out the vexed issue of late payments and empowering communities to make the most of vacant properties, which was also raised frequently this evening. In our first seven months in office, we have made good progress with our plan. As the hon. Member for Mid Buckinghamshire knows, just yesterday we introduced the Crime and Policing Bill, which will scrap the effective immunity for low-value shoplifting and do more to protect retail workers from assault; I hope it can find consensus in all parts of the House. We are providing additional funding to crack down on the organised gangs who target retailers and have done so with worrying frequency over recent years. Only this morning, we announced the expansion of the sector-based work academy programme—SWAPs—to create 100,000 more places over the next financial year. That will provide opportunities for participants in England and Scotland receiving certain benefits to train towards a job in hospitality and other high street sectors. We followed through on our promise to reform business rates and level the playing field for high streets across the country with lower tax rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties, and we want to build on that momentum with our upcoming small business strategy, which will set out how we intend to support our small businesses on the high street and beyond. Our strategy comes with a clear recognition that the way we work and live is changing in a fast-evolving landscape. We must therefore ensure that our approach reflects the continually changing reality of our high streets. We have to make sure that we are supporting services that are fit for modern life, recognising that—for all the eloquence with which people have spoken this evening—no two high streets are in fact the same. Let me now turn to some of the specific issues that hon. Members addressed, including, critically, crime and antisocial behaviour. Business rates reform and our approach to national insurance contributions are some of the economic levers taken by the Treasury to support the high street; but to create thriving high street environments takes a whole-of-Government approach. The Department for Business and Trade is working closely with other Departments, particularly the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Home Office, to co-ordinate activity that supports high streets and their businesses. A vital element of creating the thriving high streets of which so many Members have spoken is ensuring that they are a safe and comfortable environment both for business leaders and for shoppers. I have mentioned this week’s introduction of the Crime and Policing Bill, a central part of the Government’s plan for change and indeed our safer streets mission. The Bill will ensure that the police and courts have the necessary powers to help to tackle assaults against retail workers and shop theft. It will create a stand-alone offence for assaulting a retail worker, in order to protect staff, measure the scale of the problem and drive down retail crime. It is simply unacceptable that shop theft, and violence and abuse towards retail workers, continue to rise. We ask retailers to perform a significant act of public service—