{"id":7749,"date":"2019-02-21T04:31:41","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T04:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/city-centres-could-become-ghost-towns\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T04:31:41","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T04:31:41","slug":"city-centres-could-become-ghost-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/city-centres-could-become-ghost-towns\/","title":{"rendered":"City centres &#8216;could become ghost towns&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Empty shop\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/2E0E\/production\/_102309711_emptyshop_getty.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">City centres are in danger of becoming ghost towns as shopping habits change, a committee of MPs has warned.<\/p>\n<p>To combat this, the government should &#8220;level the playing field&#8221; for High Street retailers by raising taxes on online giants such as Amazon, it said.<\/p>\n<p>The MPs also called for lower business rates and more regeneration in town centres. <\/p>\n<p>The government said it was investing to ensure high streets &#8220;adapt and thrive for generations&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>A fifth of UK retail sales now occur online with that proportion likely to grow, the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee said.   <\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-47284576\" class=\"story-body__link\">Replacing failed shops &#8216;won&#8217;t save cities&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-46640362\" class=\"story-body__link\">Three things that could save the High Street<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But it said the impact on high streets had been &#8220;stark&#8221;, resulting in &#8220;store closures, persistently empty shops and declining footfall&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Some formerly thriving shopping areas are likely to become ghost towns and effectively close down altogether unless the government, councils, retailers, landlords and the local community act together,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Level playing field<\/h2>\n<p>One problem, the committee said, was that High Street retailers paid much higher business rates than online retailers because of their greater reliance on physical premises. <\/p>\n<p>Amazon UK&#8217;s rates, for example, are about 0.7% of its UK turnover, while most High Street retailers pay between 1.5% and 6.5%.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                 <span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>To counter this, the MPs said the government should look again at bringing in an online sales tax &#8211; an idea the Treasury previously ruled out over concerns it would penalise consumers.<\/p>\n<p>The committee urged it to consider &#8220;green taxes&#8221; on online deliveries and packaging, as well as higher VAT and a general sales tax.<\/p>\n<p>The revenue raised would be put towards a reduction in business rates for High Street retailers and more funding for regeneration, it said. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">&#8216;Green spaces&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>The committee also called for planning reforms to create more &#8220;green spaces&#8221; in city centres, as well as more leisure, culture and social care services.<\/p>\n<p>And it said High Street retailers themselves needed to focus on &#8220;experience&#8221; and &#8220;convenience&#8221; to lure shoppers back &#8211; for example by extending their opening hours. <\/p>\n<p>Amazon, which has massive sales and profits in the UK, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-45053528\" class=\"story-body__link\">yet pays little tax<\/a>, declined to comment on the MPs&#8217; proposals. <\/p>\n<p>But it stressed it paid all of the taxes required of it in the UK and &#8220;every country where we operate&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Helen Dickinson, head of the British Retail Consortium, welcomed calls for lower business rates, saying the current system was &#8220;a major factor in store closures&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>High Streets Minister Jake Berry said the government had unveiled a \u00a3675m plan to support the High Street at the last budget. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We know high streets are the backbone of our economy and a crucial part of our local communities, and we want to see them thrive &#8211; both now and in the future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re supporting small retailers too, slashing business rates by a third &#8211; building on more than \u00a313bn of rates relief since 2016.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-47307865\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images City centres are in danger of becoming ghost towns as shopping habits change, a committee of MPs has warned. To combat this, the government should &#8220;level the playing field&#8221; for High Street retailers by raising taxes on online giants such as Amazon, it said. The MPs also called for lower business &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}