A group of Northern Conservative MPs including Carlisle’s John Stevenson have demanded that the Prime Minister delivers on his promises to scrap business regulations and business rates.
Boris Johnson declared during his 2019 General Election campaign that £280million will be used to save high streets across the UK.
Such plans have yet to materialise which has led to the Northern Research Group (NRG) to publicly announce that the Government need to “level up” on helping communities in the North rebuild after the pandemic.
An NRG member, Stevenson said: “The high streets across Carlisle are the beating heart of the community and are the original and local social network. While the Government’s High Street Strategy is welcome, we must now deliver for high street businesses across the Carlisle constituency.
“The Government must release high street businesses from the shackles of regulation and remove the barriers that prevent many from shopping locally.
“For too long issues such as high parking charge costs have driven people away from local businesses to large shopping centres or online. It’s time we levelled the playing field to level up our high streets.
“Our plan for the high streets tears down the barriers and blows away the cobwebs to unlock the true potential of our town and city centres to have a post-pandemic bloom.”
The group of MPs have released a list of plans for the high street that they claim should be a key part of the UK Government’s high street strategy. The ten steps are:
1. Rollback planning red tape by abolishing planning restrictions on the use of shops.
2. One year of free business rates for all new high street businesses.
3. Tailored Start-up Loans for new high street businesses.
4. Time-limited free parking and a referendum lock for local traders on increases in charges.
5. Business Improvement Districts for every local high street.
6. Keep cash as King on the high street by scraping business rates on free to use cash machines.
7. A National High Street Perfect Day to bring the community together.
8. Local discount cards sent to every resident with their council tax bill.
9. Create a café society with a buzzing night-time economy with closing times scrapped.
10. Dynamic and diverse high streets improved public open space.
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