{"id":22897,"date":"2019-06-04T17:53:08","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T16:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=22897"},"modified":"2019-06-04T17:53:08","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T16:53:08","slug":"whitehall-unwilling-to-help-the-high-street-select-committee-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=22897","title":{"rendered":"Whitehall \u2018unwilling\u2019 to help the high street, select committee says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Government is \u2018unwilling\u2019 to give high streets a \u2018fighting chance\u2019 in the battle with online retailers, a select committee has concluded, as a report published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in February concluded that business rates were \u2018stacking the odds\u2019 against high street retailers.<\/h3>\n

image: Open Government licence v3.0<\/em><\/h6>\n

<\/p>\n

LocalGov writes:<\/p>\n

The Government is \u2018unwilling\u2019 to give high streets a \u2018fighting chance\u2019 in the battle with online retailers, a select committee has concluded.<\/p>\n

A report published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in February concluded that business rates were \u2018stacking the odds\u2019 against high street retailers. It urged Whitehall to initiate reforms to provide relief to high street retailers, including giving consideration to proposals for an online sales tax to level the playing field.<\/p>\n

In their response to the report, the Government said that such changes would be \u2018extremely challenging\u2019. \u2018Most of the reforms suggested by the committee go beyond the current business rates system,\u2019 they said. \u2018They would require significant time to consider, consult, legislate, and build the IT and other systems required for implementation and to communicate the changes to business and to the public. \u2018Therefore, it would be extremely challenging to introduce them in the short term, or as extensions of the current business rates system.\u2019<\/p>\n

The committee chair Clive Betts said he was disappointed by the Government\u2019s response which showed they were \u2018unwilling\u2019 to make the \u2018radical\u2019 changes necessary to help high street shops. \u2018The Government has too readily decided to stick to the status quo, rather than examining the range of radical options to the taxation system that we propose in order to save the high street which it simply dismisses as too challenging,\u2019 he said. Mr Betts also registered his disappointment at the Government\u2019s rejection of the committee\u2019s recommendation to pause permitted development rights.<\/p>\n

The committee urged Whitehall to empower councils to intervene more to support their local high streets. Local Plans, it said, were a key element of this. However, the report warned that permitted development rights \u2013 a national grant of planning permission which bypasses local planning authorities \u2013 undermine these plans.<\/p>\n

The Government responded by defending PDRs. \u2018Permitted development rights make a valuable contribution to supporting development, by simplifying the planning process and reducing the matters that local planning authorities have to consider,\u2019 they said. \u2018They provide greater flexibility and freedoms to support our changing high streets and help businesses to adapt and diversify quickly to changes in consumer demands.\u2019 Mr Betts said this was a \u2018disappointing\u2019 reply to his committee\u2019s recommendation. \u2018There is little point in empowering local authorities to develop plans that address the specific needs of their areas if they can be so easily circumvented,\u2019 he said<\/p>\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n

Download the report<\/a><\/p>\n

For more background see the NewsBlogs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Government is \u2018unwilling\u2019 to give high streets a \u2018fighting chance\u2019 in the battle with online retailers, a select committee has concluded, as a report published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in February concluded that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22898,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22897\/revisions\/22898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}