Breathing life into our high streets

Under the Conservatives, Poole's high street has declined. Across the country, there are now 3,710 fewer fruit and veg shops, butchers, and newsagents than there were in 2010.

Rishi Sunak’s recession has hammered small business and consumers alike, with the soaring cost of living, eye-watering mortgage and rent payments contributing to businesses closing and shops boarded up.

And since 2022 alone, an additional 385 towns have seen their last bank branch close, or announce that they will be closing imminently. This has left local people and businesses without any options to bank locally.

The decimation to small business is coupled with record levels of shoplifting – up more than 30 per cent in a single year – and persistently high levels of antisocial behaviour, with a third of the public witnessing or experiencing it in their local area over the past 12 months. This is leaving shops and shoppers crippled by crime in their communities.

Labour will:

• Revamp empty shops, pubs and community spaces and end the blight of empty premises.

• Replace business rates with a new system of business property taxation which rebalances the burden and levels the playing field between our high streets and online giants.

• Roll out banking hubs to guarantee face-to-face banking in every community boosting local high streets and shops. The cost of opening and operating the hubs will be met collectively by the banks.​  

• Tackle anti-social behaviour and shoplifting by putting 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs back on the beat.