By Matt Rodda
The last few years have been incredibly tough for local businesses, many of which are still recovering from the financial impact of the pandemic while also dealing with the challenges of the cost-of-living crisis.
Unfortunately, retailers are now also a facing an epidemic of shoplifting and abuse as criminals target Britain’s high streets. These businesses are sadly being let down by a government that cannot keep the streets safe.
Shoplifting has gone up by 30% in the last year and according to the British Retail Consortium, retailers lost £1.8bn during this time due to shoplifting, the highest amount on record.
This has an understandable impact on the financial viability of many retailers, and I am concerned that large chains may have to close certain shops if they cannot protect colleagues, and that this could cause smaller retailers to go out of business for good.
This problem has not been helped by the Government’s decision in 2014 to downgrade the response to a new category of ‘low-value shoplifting’ of goods valued under £200. This measure has given criminals free rein on high streets to steal popular consumer goods under this amount – for example, Apple AirPods, Levi’s jeans, and Premier League football shirts – and not face the full force of the law.
In practice, this has also acted as a signal to the police to deprioritise any enforcement for shoplifting of goods below £200 – even in cases of repeat and organised shoplifting – with arrests for theft offences falling from 136,000 in 2018 to just 78,000 in 2022.
In November, the Director of Public Affairs at the Co-op revealed that due to existing pressures on the police, the police did not respond to 76% of serious retail crimes reported to them so suspects were let free from stores.
It is retail staff who are on the frontline of this surge in shoplifting and the impact on them has been clear, with incidents of violence, racial abuse, sexual harassment, physical assaults, and threats with weapons soaring by 50% to 1,300 incidents recorded daily last year.
No one should have to go to work fearing for their safety and Labour has been calling for a standalone offence of assault against shop workers to tackle this issue since 2018.
The Government finally acted last month, but not before violent incidents against shop workers had soared to staggering levels.
These problems are only exacerbated by the fact that this government has hollowed out neighbourhood policing and taken a wrecking ball to the criminal justice system.
After 14 years of Tory Government, more than 90% of crimes are now going unsolved meaning that criminals are less than half as likely to be caught now compared to when Labour was last in power. Serious violence has gone up, town centres are suffering rising crime and antisocial behaviour, and people don’t see the police on the streets any more.
Something must be done. Labour will go further and make the streets safe.
We will reverse the Tories’ shoplifters charter, which downgrades the response to shoplifting under £200, and we will put 13,000 police officers back on the beat, with a designated officer for every high street.
If you are a retail worker who has experienced abuse at work, or a shopper who has witnessed retail crime, and you would like to raise your experience with me please get in touch with my team on mattroddampcasework@parliament.uk
