By Cllr Marie-Louise Weighill
We recently have lost long-standing and fondly remembered shops in Wokingham as well as some new ones which have bravely set up in difficult times but been unable to continue.
We are all dishearteningly familiar with the litany of high streets in crisis – the loss of department stores, fifty shops closing a week, the empty shop fronts that darken like lost teeth.
The loss of retail does not only affect shoppers – the demise of flexible yet steady retail jobs is a real loss to the community. We hear of endless initiatives but the decline seems to continue.
The Council is often blamed in discussions of this – at least on social media – and the impact of parking charges, overzealous parking enforcement and business rates is often, and intemperately, held as responsible for our current situation.
This is a partial and shallow explanation – it is central government choices that have brought this about and it is at central government level where the most significant steps to improvement will have to be made.
The ‘cost-of-living-crisis’ is not a natural phenomenon like the weather, it is the product of years of austerity that have failed to achieve their stated purpose – the bringing down of debt – and have instead brought us to the situation we face today.
It is utterly wrong to talk as if the operating environment for local government and local businesses is just a fact of life or a law of physics rather than the outcome of a series of deliberate political choices by the Conservative party
First, continuing and Inexorable cuts to local authority funding meant that charges have had to be raised to protect services necessary for the survival of many.
Second, austerity and its associated decline in productivity and spending power have meant a decline in people’s discretionary spending.
Finally and most damagingly, a doom loop of underinvestment and wage stagnation undermines the innovation that our town centres need
To address this we do not need helpless nostalgia for a never-existing golden age but an awareness that towns should and, with the right support and investment, can adapt to the new reality.
The Labour Party has stressed the importance of small businesses as the beating heart of our economy and will act to support businesses and communities working to improve and protect Wokingham shops and services:
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Pushing active travel reforms that will make the shopping areas of the Borough easier, safer and more pleasant to reach by foot, bicycle and public transport
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Reforming business rates to a system that is fairer by shifting the burden from bricks and mortar businesses to online shopping giants
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Enhancing powers for councils to end the blight of empty shops by strengthening their capacity to step in in cases of persistent vacancy
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Promoting and supporting the development of community-owned spaces and businesses to affordable appropriate services and products that can more nimbly meet shifting local demand than traditional chains.
A Labour government will provide the support that businesses need to offer our High Streets and shopping areas the flexible and resilient shops, services and experiences that we need and deserve.
Cllr Marie-Louise Weighill is Labour ward member for Norreys on Wokingham Borough Council
