23 March 2024 , 16:26
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A Tory pledge to protect the ailing high street lies in tatters as big name shops disappear, putting nearly 500,000 jobs at risk.
Its 2019 manifesto promise took another battering this week as fashion chain Ted Baker is on the brink of collapse, endangering almost 1,000 jobs. In 14 years of Conservative rule, 586 chains have plunged into administration, affecting 29,959 stores and 460,038 staff, say experts at the Centre for Retail Research.
Some 12,500 jobs were lost in the first two months of 2024. And among the household names to vanish from the high street are Debenhams, Oddbins, Ethel Austin, Comet, Past Times and BHS. Fast-fashion retailers Peacocks went into administration in 2020 and was saved in a buy out. But shut more than 200 of its 400 branches.
Yet even this week PM Rishi Sunak crowed in Prime Minister’s Question about “our plan for towns helping to regenerate the local high street”. Shadow Business Minister Justin Madders said: “The Tories have allowed our high streets to become decimated and seem unable to stop its continued disintegration. Rather than levelling up the country, large parts have gone backwards under this Government.”
Oxford Street in London was once a retail hub (In Pictures via Getty Images)When homeware chain Wilko ran out of cash last year, Business Minister Kevin Hollinrake said the British high street was not “dead” but “reshaping itself”. Centre for Retail Research’s Prof Joshua Bamfield said the minimum wage increase will hit retailers who face record-high costs. He said: “It is easy for the Government to increase other people’s wages when it does not pay the bill.”
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He said retailers are furious business rates are rising 6.7%; and without a balancing of tax between shops and online business more stores will shut. A Government spokesman said: “Revitalising high streets is a major part of our levelling up agenda. That’s why we recently announced our £1.5 billion Long-Term Plan for Towns, putting more power in the hands of local people to build a brighter future for their community including through the regeneration of high streets and town centres.
“The government has also announced a business rates support package worth £4.3 billion over the next five years which will boost high streets and support small businesses.” He said it had announced a £1.5billion Long-Term Plan for Towns and a business rates support package, worth £4.3bn over five years, to help businesses.