Supporting High Streets

Luke Evans Excerpts

Tuesday 4th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Griffith (Arundel and South Downs) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House calls on the Government to support high streets by cutting public expenditure to facilitate the abolition of business rates for thousands of retail, hospitality and leisure premises on the high street; and further calls on the Government not to proceed with the Employment Rights Bill to avoid hiring freezes and job losses, to remove red tape for businesses, including by reviewing IR35, to cut energy bills for businesses and to tackle retail crime, thereby protecting key pillars of local communities including post offices, pubs and pharmacies.

I am pleased to move the motion in my name and that of the Leader of the Opposition. We celebrate and support our high streets—their independent shops, the warm refuge they provide from loneliness, and the way that they incubate new business. They bring us together as communities, provide markets for local farmers and food producers, offer venues for street festivals and often afford young people their first step on the career ladder, but across Britain’s high streets, the lights are dimming, the laughter in our pubs is falling silent, and shutters on shops are coming down for the last time. When high streets thrive, communities thrive. When our high streets retreat, so does civic society. We Conservatives profoundly value our high street enterprises, which is why one of our first actions in government will be to abolish business rates for thousands of retail, hospitality and leisure businesses.

In July, the Chancellor said that she will make the UK

“the best place to start and grow a business”.—[Official Report, 29 July 2024; Vol. 752, c. 1051.]

Well, goodness me, she has an odd way of showing it! In her very first Budget, the Chancellor slapped businesses with a £25 billion tax raid, and with a national insurance jobs tax, which hit high-street businesses the hardest, and meant that it cost business owners more simply to give someone a job.

[Dr Luke Evans (Hinckley and Bosworth) (Con)]

Hospitality was hit particularly hard by that toxic concoction. A UKHospitality survey found that 76% of businesses put up their prices, one third restricted their hours and 63% had to cut their staffing as a result. Is that not the reason why we need this policy to try to improve our high streets?

[Andrew Griffith]

My hon. Friend makes exactly the right point: it was a devastating concoction of the Chancellor’s last year, and I believe that I am right in saying that UKHospitality calibrated the figures and estimated that 98,000 jobs have been lost across the hospitality sector. How proud this Government must be of costing mostly young and often vulnerable people their first chance!

--- Later in debate ---

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

I will make progress.

Hon. Members have mentioned retail crime. We have scrapped effective immunity for low-value shoplifting, and we are taking action to protect retail workers from assault. Alongside the Employment Rights Bill, which we are proud of, that will make retail a more desirable career choice, improve retention and make recruitment clearer. We are very clear that employment rights are good for workers, but also for businesses and for the economy.

[Dr Luke Evans]

The amendment contains a bit of an oxymoron, because it says that the Government’s plan for small businesses

“commits to cut the administrative burden of regulation for businesses by 25%”,

but it then goes on to mention the Employment Rights Bill. Will the 25% cut in regulation take place before or after the Employment Rights Bill becomes law, and where will that cut come from? In all the measures that the Minister has talked about, we have not heard about that one.

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

It is incredibly telling that the hon. Member thinks that regulation consists of things such as protecting our workers, banning exploitative zero-hours contracts and ensuring that workers have sick pay. This is a fundamental part of the social contract. We are trying to ensure that when the economy does well, the everyday person does well, and that requires them to have basic rights and protections. We are very clear about and proud of that. Quite frankly, it is tragic that the Conservatives, who governed for 14 years in which workers were hugely exploited and the economy crashed, cannot see that.

Finally, before I make progress, I will reflect on energy bills. We understand that businesses are under pressure from energy bills. That is why we are driving forward our clean power mission, because we are clear that the shift to renewables will drive down bills. Alongside that, we are giving SMEs access to the Energy Ombudsman for the first time, strengthening their ability to renegotiate contracts through blend and extend, and helping businesses to reduce their use in order to reduce energy costs.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Blair McDougall)]

It has been a pleasure to listen and respond to this passionate debate. Before we get into the things on which we may disagree, I should say that it has been really interesting to hear how many times people have used metaphors like “heart and soul” and “backbone” when talking about their local high streets and local businesses.

This issue is personal to us; it is about how we feel about the places we live in. As a former retail worker, I remember the customers who would come in and maybe pay more than they would at the big supermarket because they got that personal touch. I remember the elderly customers who would come in, and I knew that I was perhaps the only other human being that they had had a conversation with that day. This is about entrepreneurship and business, but, as someone said, it is also about the soul of our communities.

It has been fantastic to listen to so many Members talking with great pride about high streets and businesses in their communities. The hon. Member for Farnham and Bordon (Gregory Stafford) invited us to Downing Street; I hope that is the only time that a right winger invites me to Downing Street for some years to come. We had a cultural trip to Weymouth and heard about the exciting plans there. I may also have a pint at the Swan in Windsor next time I go to Legoland with my children.

As someone who is no stranger to the sweet trolley, I look forward to the Cosy Cake Shop and Death by Fudge in Doncaster and also to another pint at the Fox & Goose and the T-Bar; I do not remember terribly much about the last time I was in there, because I was on a stag do. So much pride has been expressed, and I hope that everyone in the Chamber will repeat that pride in their local high street in a few days’ time on Small Business Saturday, because it helps to drive footfall and to support those local people.

We heard lots of talk from Members across the House. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and my hon. Friend the Member for East Thanet (Ms Billington) raised the issue of business rates and business rates reform. The Government are to remove barriers to investment, and to help businesses to succeed and grow. Reforming business rates was a key manifesto pledge, and it is one that we are going to fulfil.

The right hon. Member for Tonbridge (Tom Tugendhat), for whom I have some affection, and the hon. Member for South West Devon (Rebecca Smith), both quoted Napoleon—I do not know if that was a signal that they are not going to cross the Floor to Reform. I will be slightly more patriotic and quote Nelson: we cannot “turn a blind eye” to the cost of the tax measures that the Conservatives set out. Fiscal credibility and sustainability are not abstract concepts. Because we got the public finances under control, small businesses across this country have lower borrowing costs, and because of those interest rates, people across the country have more money in their pockets. We need a real plan, not a fantasy, which is why we will introduce permanently lower business rates for retail and hospitality in the Budget.

[Dr Luke Evans]

I previously tried to ask about the Government amendment that is going to be voted on, because it explicitly states that the administrative burdens of regulation for businesses will be cut by 25%. I have two questions: what is that 25% of and how will it be judged, and will it be from before or after the Employment Rights Bill comes into law? I put those questions to the Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Peckham (Miatta Fahnbulleh), but she dodged it and decided to attack the Opposition. I would be grateful if the Minister could tell me, because it is key information for the vote on the amendment.

[Blair McDougall]

We made it clear a few days ago that we plan to reduce the administrative cost of the regulatory burden by nearly £6 billion, and that is what we will do. Conservative Members have spoken about the Employment Rights Bill and their intention to repeal it, but they are forgetting that that Bill will set up a single regulator for the labour market, which will actually reduce red tape for businesses across the country.

[The Minister of State, Department for Business and Trade (Chris Bryant)]

Why—

[Dr Luke Evans]

It’s your amendment, Chris! That is what you are voting for.

[Damian Hinds]

It is the Government amendment in an Opposition day debate. How are those 25% savings going to be realised?