Here is what the Ely and East Cambridgeshire Election candidates had to say on the decline of our High Streets and businesses.
Andy Cogan (Green Party)
"The sums just don't add up for small businesses/start ups/ families looking to start a shop locally,
Shop rents: currently available in Ely: 20-22 the High Street - the asking price is £25,000 pa; 12-14 the High Street is £65,000 pa; rates will be the same,£25,000 or £65,000 pa; staff wages with ongoing costs will be £25,000 per person per year, so x 2 £50,000 pa; stock on top of that say £75,000, if turning over £1,500 pw pa; plus insurance- buildings, fire, theft, public liability, employee liability £5,000 pa
If you can run your business online, from home, in a room or shed or outbuilding it is much cheaper- no expensive leases, rents, insurances to worry about.
Unless there are dramatic rent and rate decreases these trends will continue.
Some communities can form co-ops or social enterprises, share the costs, so pubs, bakeries have been saved or started up that way.
The most likely future for high streets premises in villages and market towns to become flats and town houses.
In Lode in December the Baptist Chapel and Post Office both closed.
AI and internet is changing how we live, work and shop- and how we do trading and banking, Covid accelerated these changes.
So delivery vans and parcels, and home deliveries out of yards will continue to grow.
And we will get used to a few hairdressers and barbers, cafes and charity shops?"
Elizabeth McWilliams (Labour)
"Labour will bring a fresh start for our high streets.
We want people feel safe when they go out to shop, eat or socialise in their local high street, And we’re going to act by putting 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs back on the beat.
In many of our towns and villages we’re lucky to have Co-op stores, yet across the country those stores see 1,000 incidents of theft or abuse each day.
Labour will scrap the £200 rule (introduced during the Lib Dem - Conservative coalition) which stops shoplifting being investigated.
We will replace business rates to make it fairer for local shops competing against online giants.
Labour will roll out banking hubs to bring back face-to-face banking. Sadly, in our area the only branches left are in Ely.
We will give communities a new ‘right to buy ’to end the blight of empty premises.
Labour will put the high street back into the heart of the community, creating a safe and attractive place to shop and to relax. I want to hear your views on your local high street, that’s why I am carrying out a survey visit: tinyurl.com/EmCShops to have your say."
Lucy Frazer (Conservative)
"We know that the pandemic and changing consumer habits have contributed to a challenging business environment over the last few years.
I regularly speak to the owners of high-street stores and they have shared with me their thanks for recent government support like furlough, Covid recovery funding and business rates relief which has supported them when under pressure.
We want to do more than keep our high streets alive; we want them to thrive.
That's why the Conservative manifesto offers a 10-point plan to back small and medium-sized businesses, including delivering a further £4.3 billion of business rates relief, improving access to finance and cutting red tape.
We also want to improve the high street experience. To this end, I have helped address potholes and I've also supported extended free parking in Ely and a parking enforcement volunteer scheme which East Cambridgeshire District Council is working on with the police.
Nationally, we will change planning laws to bring back local market days; raise the fines utility firms must pay when they fail to properly restore roads/pavements following works; and make fly tipping an offence that carries points against your driving licence
Ryan Coogan (Reform UK)
"The high street needs reform in some areas, Ely has faired better than some surrounding areas due to the Cathedral having a real stakeholder input, ensuring this area is well established.
We cannot be complacent, however, and the facts remain that this is a challenging trading environment.
The area falls into my home values of family happiness and creating local wealth. We must help to incubate local entrepreneurial spirit allowing and enabling funding for upstart businesses and those who wish to get on at a local level.
We must ensure the market thrives and enables local traders a platform to start, expand and trade well into the future.
We must keep the space as diverse as possible. We must continue with free parking to help level up with out of town shopping districts.
As a party we are going to reform the internet retail sector and levy four per cent tax on the big multinational internet retail giants to help level the playing field for local traders and local business people with great ideas.
We must improve the mobile signal in Ely to continue the technological advancement, for traders and the public.
We need improved finance, improved technology, cohesive local government support of business and entrepreneurial enterprises. With this reform our local high streets and local business will thrive for the future.
Charlotte Cane (Lib Dem)
High streets have been hammered by covid, business rates, energy costs, and the squeeze on shoppers’ budgets in the cost-of-living crisis.
They also face systemic problems from town-edge shopping centres, and even more so from online shopping.
It’s time to replace business rates with a Commercial Landowner Levy payable by landlords, freeing small businesses to thrive and create local jobs.
We need to properly fund council planning departments by allowing them to set their own fees, and incentivise development of brownfield land and empty premises, enhancing the high street and promoting regeneration.
Too many residents are cut off from the centre of Ely and our market towns because they simply can’t get there. Improving public transport is vital, along with better and safer walking and cycling routes.
We have one of the greatest cathedral cities in the world and you can’t get there by bus on a Sunday!
The centre of Ely, and parts of our towns, have notoriously poor internet and mobile connectivity. As MP I would convene a High Street Forum with traders, landlords, community groups and councils to work together on this, and on other ways to revitalise our high streets and keep them vibrant."
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