Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of empty shops on high streets in England and Wales.

Our Plan for the High Street announced in Autumn Budget 2018 included a number of measures to address the number of empty shops on high streets. The Open Doors pilot tests a new way to address this challenge by matching landlords of empty commercial properties across England with community groups looking for space; whilst the pilot register for empty commercial properties will improve the transparency of ownership on the high street, making it easier to bring empty shops into use. Our Plan for the High Street also included commitments to cut business rates bills of small retailers by one third.

In the Spring Statement of March 2019, the government announced new and amended permitted development rights to support high streets making it easier to change the use of high street properties as well as extending temporary change of use to enable more community use of empty properties.