Angela Rayner has pledged that voters will see improvements in their local high streets before the next general election as the Labour government prioritises investment in struggling communities. The housing secretary said the government had made reversing the fortunes of town centres blighted by boarded-up shops and rogue businesses a top priority before going to the polls. Rayner described a "real sense of decline" in people's local high streets and emphasised that the government had developed a high streets strategy to address the problem.
The chancellor John Healey earmarked more than £1bn in his debut budget to support retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. Healey's plan includes business rates cuts for these sectors worth £1bn over two years, with the relief partly funded by higher taxes on gambling and vape shops. Labour also launched a revamped "hope on the high street" strategy to coordinate investment and transfer power to local leaders, which includes the £5.8bn "pride in place" programme to support regeneration projects and a £210m fund to transform derelict buildings. Rayner said the government was ready to take further action and that "the money will start to come through", with business rates cuts applying from April next year.
When asked whether voters would see a difference in their local shopping districts before the next election, Rayner said the £5.8bn already allocated would be deployed and additional funding would reach more areas from April. She described the chancellor as "really giving them support" to ease pressure on businesses and households amid economic damage from the Middle East war. However, business leaders said more fundamental changes to the business rates system were needed, noting that Labour had promised to replace it entirely in its manifesto. Budget documents show ministers are exploring how the business rates system could better target online retailers to fund support for the high street.
The government's high streets push comes as the discount retailer Poundland filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, putting up to 12,000 jobs at risk. Poundland is a fixture on high streets across the country, making the potential collapse a significant blow to town centres that the government is attempting to revitalise. The chancellor was warned by the Resolution Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies that his budget measures were poorly targeted and had paved the way for a "brutal" spending review next year.