Supporting High Streets

Matt Vickers Excerpts

Tuesday 4th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Matt Vickers (Stockton West) (Con)]

I thank the shadow Business and Trade Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs (Andrew Griffith), for ably setting out the Conservative case for restoring our high streets, and the costs and consequences of the Government’s decisions. As a former Woolies worker, and having chaired the all-party parliamentary group on the future of retail, I am particularly passionate about our high streets and their role as the lifeblood of our local communities.

We have heard brilliant examples from right hon. and hon. Members of fantastic high-street businesses in their communities. Few will be as incredible as those in Yarm, Stockton and Thornaby, but valid points were made. We heard about the huge threat to the full English in greasy spoon cafés across the country, but price rises for mushrooms, tomatoes and bacon pale into significance when compared with Labour’s slashing of small business rates relief, its job tax and its unemployment rights Bill. From Bognor Regis to Windsor, and from Doncaster to Crewe, we see the butcher’s, the baker’s and—less frequently—the candlestick maker’s. Our high streets apparently offer everything, from wigs to corned beef and spam, and Members are rightly clearly proud of them.

One of the messages we have heard today is, “Shop local and support local small businesses,” but another message was heard loud and clear. It probably came from Members on both sides of the Chamber. It is a message that is familiar to any Member who engages with local small businesses: our high streets face an existential threat, and the problem is compounded by the choices of this Government. We are a nation of shopkeepers.

[Bradley Thomas]

My hon. Friend is making a good point. As I often point out to my constituents when talking about the future of the high street—the situation will be similar in other constituencies—there are approximately 50,000 households in my constituency, and if each one of those spends £5 per week supporting a local business, that is £1 million per month that stays in the local economy. If we multiply that, it becomes quite powerful support for local businesses, and helps their long-term vitality.

[Matt Vickers]

It is a clear message: “Stop scrolling through Amazon, and go buy local—it’ll benefit your local economy greatly.”

High streets define places. Their success allows us to feel pride in our towns. They are a place where people come together. They help us to tackle social isolation, and they are often the place where people get their first job, and their last. The retail, hospitality and leisure sector employs 5.8 million people, and generates billions of pounds for our economy.

[Amanda Martin]

Does the shadow Minister agree that those 5.8 million people deserve a decent wage, deserve to know what hours they are working, and deserve proper sick pay?

[Matt Vickers]

My hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs made a very good point: we do not support workers by bankrupting their employer. In the nine months before this Government took office, 22,000 jobs were created in the hospitality sector, and in the nine months since the last Budget, 100,000 people lost their job—their ability to provide for their family, and to live out their aspirations and dreams. That is a disgrace.

The sector is also the natural home of social mobility. It allows people to climb and achieve incredible things. There are so many stories of people who started by stacking shelves and serving coffee, and who went on to reach the boardroom. Without doubt, our high streets are really struggling. The truth is that they were battered by the Chancellor’s Budget last autumn—a £25 billion tax bombshell on British businesses and jobs, as a result of measures including the jobs tax and the slashing of small business rates relief.

Conservative Members understand that businesses need to be supported, not tied up in red tape and taxed into extinction. If this Labour Government do not change course, we risk making our high streets unrecognisable and unrecoverable. The problems are clear for all to see: higher taxes, punitive business rates, soaring energy costs, rising crime and more red tape and paperwork for employers. The Government must take urgent action to fix that.

[Laurence Turner]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving way; he is being generous with his time. I wonder if he could clarify his party’s position on the Employment Rights Bill. The shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Andrew Griffith), said that a Conservative Government would seek to repeal what he called the most damaging elements of the Bill. Could he set out for us which measures they welcome and would retain?

[Matt Vickers]

Basically, Labour’s trade union paymasters seem to have written a large part of the Bill. In fact, we found a really rare thing today: one employer on the face of the earth who apparently supports the Bill was mentioned earlier, but of course, they were not British.

In my constituency in Stockton, almost every time I visit a small business owner, they tell me the same story: since the Chancellor’s Budget, they have had to let staff go or reduce their hours; they have had to put up prices, and some are now considering whether there is any future at all for their business. As the chief exec of UKHospitality has said, pubs, bars and restaurants are already closing earlier because of the jobs tax, and more than 200 leading hospitality businesses have written to the Chancellor to warn that her decisions will force companies to cut jobs and reconsider investment.

Too many businesses are closing. Too many jobs are being lost. Boarded-up high streets will eat away at the pride people can have in their communities and town centres. Throughout today’s debate, we have heard Labour MP after Labour MP—soon, I am sure, to be followed by the Minister—talk about the virtues of their Government’s policies. I have to ask them, have they seriously had a conversation with the small businesses on their local high street about the challenges they face?

We are now just a couple of weeks away from the Chancellor’s next Budget. She has the opportunity to change course, yet this morning we heard the same old story, with the Chancellor laying the groundwork for more tax rises—another nail in the coffin of our high streets, alongside people and businesses across the country. But we on the Conservative Benches have a clear plan for stronger high streets. First, we would abolish business rates for thousands of retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. That would benefit a quarter of a million businesses—savings that would not only help them thrive, but could be reinvested in better premises, low prices, and more jobs. It would lift thousands of businesses out of business rates all together.

[Graham Stuart]

Is my hon. Friend as shocked as I am to find that the Liberal Democrats have joined their comrades in Labour in saying that not a penny can be saved from public expenditure, and instead more taxes must be imposed on businesses that are already struggling with the weight?

[Matt Vickers]

They need to go back on YouTube—we’ll encourage a bit of online interaction—and listen to that fantastic speech from the Leader of the Opposition about the £47 billion of savings that can be made, that will be supported by the public, and that can help us balance the books and save high street businesses.

Another issue facing businesses that has been highlighted by many hon. Members is the impact of energy bills. Britain has the highest electricity prices in the world. It does not have to be this way. The situation is making our high street businesses less competitive and stifling economic growth. That is why we would axe the carbon tax and scrap net zero subsidies to reduce the cost of electricity. That would of course benefit consumers, but also businesses; the average restaurant would save £5,100 a year.

The third point in relation to our plan for stronger high streets is stronger policing. Under this Labour Government, crime is on the rise in high streets across the country, eroding community trust and public safety. It is having a huge impact on our high streets. Indeed, just a few weeks ago I met Costa Coffee, a well-known high street chain. Despite its huge resources, its representatives told me that they face constant thefts, and even ram-raids to steal sandwiches and drinks—an unbelievable situation.

Even Greggs—one of the nation’s favourites, and mine—has had to start locking up its sandwiches, soft drinks and sausages rolls in some locations, because of prolific shoplifting. In fact, shoplifting has risen by 20% in this Labour Government’s first year in office. That is the highest figure since modern records began, but it is no surprise because police numbers are falling. There are 1,316 fewer police officers since this Labour Government came to power.

As part of our plan, we will hire 10,000 extra police officers backed by £800 million in funding. We will end Labour’s early release scheme to keep criminals behind bars, introduce intense police hotspot patrolling in areas to cover serious violent crime and robbery, and treble stop and search to take knives and weapons off our streets. We will also redirect resources to catch real criminals, abolishing non-crime hate incidents so that police can spend 60,000 more hours policing our streets and not our tweets.

[Kevin Bonavia]

Will the shadow Minister confirm that under the previous Conservative Administration, thieves could get £200 worth of goods with impunity, and that has changed under this Government?

[Matt Vickers]

That is a complete and utter myth. The hon. Gentleman will be able to check the Government facts and stats that will confirm that 90% of all cases of people charged with shop theft related to goods under £200—would he believe it? Indeed, I have a question for him and I will let him answer: could he name a single police force in the country that had a policy of not actioning thefts of under £200?

[Kevin Bonavia]

I am very happy to intervene. We are talking about changing the status quo under the hon. Gentleman’s Government.

[Matt Vickers]

Not a single police force in the country had that policy, and 90% of all cases with charges for shop theft involved goods under the value of £200. That is a fact, and what the hon. Gentleman says is a myth.

At the heart of our high streets lies entrepreneurship—those incredible people who get up early, take the risks and build something. They create jobs, wealth and opportunity. This Labour Government have spent the last year making it harder to start a business. That means that now just one in four young people who want to start a business do so, as highlighted by the Federation of Small Businesses.

We need to cut red tape so that our businesses can breathe again. We need to make it easier for entrepreneurs to open a bank account and engage with HMRC, and we need to expand business coaching in schools. It is no surprise that those on the Government Benches just do not get it; just one member of the Cabinet has started their own business, and less than half of them have ever worked in the private sector.

Let me conclude with this point. The high street is suffering. As a result, people who have invested their lives in creating businesses are suffering, those youngsters who might have been able to get their first job on the high street are suffering, and those older people who felt pride in their town for years and decades are now watching as shops are boarded up and they are suffering too. Analysis of insolvency notices has revealed that businesses are closing at the fastest rate since the world economic crash, and as a result 17% more people are without a job.

Tonight is a chance to join the Conservatives in backing the people who work hard and do the right thing. Any Member of this House who wants to support our high streets, the entrepreneurs who work hard and do the right thing, and more job opportunities for people—young and old—and any Member who wants to ensure that people can continue to have pride in their town centres should support the motion and our plan for stronger high streets. I commend the motion to the House.