530,000 shoplifting offences, 1 in 7 shops empty, 38 businesses closing every day.
To confront Labour's stagnant economy, tackle crime and revive town centres Andy Burnham needs to adopt a Conservative approach to High Streets.
Why high streets matter
High Streets matter because they are both the core of most communities and they are a barometer of the economic and social vitality of those communities.
But they are changing. Retail habits have changed as online shopping became the norm and social habits have changed to.
In many areas, we have seen a hollowing out of high streets and a different type of retail moving in, often with different problems.
Low-grade retail and the decline in investment in the public realm are significant factors in the vitality of the areas that we represent. The British public have clear opinions: 79% of Brits are concerned about the decline of high streets and town centres, 65% believe that there are not enough shopping options and 68% believe that there are too many vape shops, barber shops, charity shops and mini-marts in their communities.
We must think about why footfall in retail has declined. There is the effect of internet shopping, which is very much a normal part of life nowadays. We must also acknowledge the increasing costs that businesses face, including business rates, utility bills and rising labour costs. It is a perfect storm.
There is also a rural/suburban distinction. In rural areas, the British public have a stronger opinion: about 55% of people in predominantly rural or semi-rural areas believe that their high street is undergoing a decline, whereas the figure for those living in urban areas is only 19%.
Take some of the statistics that back up the evidence about the narrowing range of high street retail across the country. There are now believed to be at least 3,500 nail bars, 20,000 to 25,000 barber shops and 3,500 vape shops.
As we are all aware, those numbers could well be significantly under-reported, so they do not necessarily give an accurate picture of the extent of the challenge. On Oxford Street alone there are 18 American candy stores.
As a Conservative, I am not a fan of a heavier than necessary regulatory hand from the state, but take non-surgical aesthetic treatment for instance and you will find that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of unlicensed premises conducting small scale cosmetic surgery on increasingly impressionable young people, who are either body conscious or motivated by the latest beauty trends on Instagram or peer-pressure to conform to a certain aesthetic.
These businesses are not all operated by those with malign intent. They are often “side hustles” for those who are passionate about such products and who have tapped into a captive market. But the industry is wholly unregulated and unlicensed meaning that anyone could watch a video on YouTube today and start injecting into customers tomorrow with no skills, training or medical expertise.
This is an example of an emergent market and our regulatory framework not keeping pace with our expectations of consumer and medical protection in an advanced healthcare economy.
More generally at the centre of a Venn diagram of regulatory and reporting blackspots, there is a sweet spot where it is difficult to identify those who are responsible behind the building ownership or the so-called businesses appearing on our high streets.
Throw into the mix the decline of vital services in our areas and we see that some 7,000 banks have closed across the country since 2015, which is two thirds of the entire banking network.
We all know people who are increasingly dependent on retail banking presence and whilst there has been a push towards banking hubs, and the Post Office performs a role to some extent, there are 1,400 postcodes across the country that do not have a bank within a 5-mile radius, which demonstrates the scale of the challenge.
Many banks have occupied some of the most prominent, historic, beautiful and iconic buildings in our towns and so when they become vacant there is a visible hole in the social and economic fabric of our communities.
Labour’s assault on small businesses
One in seven high street shops across the country are currently empty.
An estimated 38 businesses close every day. When businesses close, there are job losses, with an estimated 93,000 retail jobs lost in 2025 alone. In the hospitality sector, it is reported that up to 5,000 jobs are being lost per month.
Labour must change course on the additional costs that they have placed on small businesses across the country. They are unquestionably killing employment and putting greater pressure on the long-term viability of those businesses.
Labour, should implement the Conservative’s plan to abolish business rates for thousands of shops, hospitality venues, pubs and small retailers across the country to give our high street traders a boost.
We need to get energy costs down, and the Government can do that by endorsing the Conservatives’ clean power plan to give businesses and householders a welcome reprieve from some of the highest energy costs in the world.
Actions without consequences
We are increasingly living in a society without consequences where illegal or even poor or antisocial behaviour goes unchallenged. The law appears to be increasingly unenforced, with poor actions lacking penalty or sanction.
The Office for National Statistics has reported that in 2025 there were 530,000 shoplifting offences, an increase of 20% on the previous year.
That is the highest figure on record, and it does not consider crimes that are not reported because there is a general malaise or a suspicion that they will not be investigated.
Other reports suggest that only 50% of shopkeepers report crime, while a staggering 55% of reported cases are closed without a suspect ever having been identified. That is despite retailers having spent £300 million on measures such as security, CCTV and facial recognition to mitigate the effects of shoplifting.
It is believed that up to one half of vape shops and a large proportion of American candy stores have ties to organised crime. The scale of the problem is unquestionable; we all recognise it.
Over the past 12 months, 3,600 shops have had illegal goods seized, and it is estimated by the National Crime Agency that £1 billion of criminal cash is laundered through high street retail.
There are tools at the disposal of the state that are not used enough. Not enough deterrents. Not enough of a strong and visible camp down on this behaviour to prevent instances from recurring.
The foundation of society
If society can’t get the basics right, how can we expect to have the long-term will to tackle the big challenges and seize new opportunities?
If we can't enforce the fundamentals, we shouldn't be surprised when the visible indicators of a decent society begin to slide – behaviour, abiding by the law, investing in public realm, taking pride in how we collectively interact with one another, being mindful of the impact that our actions have on others.
Litter is a good example of something that is a demerit activity – that is the higher social costs of the activity (the taxpayer funding someone to street clean, or an area being unattractive for shoppers because it is untidy) outweigh the immediate private convenience (laziness) to the individual perpetrator.
Fixed penalty notices (FPNs) can be issued, with 200,000 FPNs for littering last year but these are applied inconsistently with at least 71 councils failing to issue a single litter fine.
The Government announced in March that it was considering imposing penalty points on drivers for those guilty of fly-tipping. This should be extended to any form of litter, including small items, to discourage an activity that benefits nobody other than the lazy perpetrator.
As we have seen our high streets change, or begin to hollow out in some areas, there has been a decline in civic pride and investment. Councils do many things well, often with constrained budgets, but there has been an undeniable decline in public realm investment over the last decade. There are lots of reasons for this, including the obvious being that councils are spending more on statutory services which has a displacement effect on more discretionary spends.
But the aesthetic and feel, some might say vibe, of the public realm is crucial to determining how safe a high street is, how appealing it is for shoppers to visit and how attractive it is as a destination for investors or those who want to start a business.
Design codes are crucial. One of the many corrosive acts of this Labour government, in the early days of Angela Rayner’s first cabinet stint, was to remove references to “beauty” and “beautiful” from the National Planning Policy Framework. She argued that the term was subjective and stalled development, but beauty, particularly in the built environment, is not as subjective as we may think.
Not everyone will be able to define what makes a place beautiful, but there are innate characteristics that we, as humans, are drawn towards. We can all think of those places that inspire for a further-afield weekend visit, or places that look pretty, inviting or have become popular amongst influencers on Instagram.
This is because of their aesthetic which often promotes a mix of greenery, differing dimensions and curves in architecture, that are visibly vibrant or often with distinct local characteristics.
Design codes are crucial because without them beauty becomes optional. Beautiful design must be seen as an investment rather than a cost and without a mandatory local guide, delivered in consultation with local opinion, monotony will reign. That ubiquitous uniformity does nothing to cultivate a sense of vitality or distinctiveness in a place.
The government must restore the principle of beautiful design being at the centre of planning decisions and local councils should make local-design codes a top strategic planning priority.
Whilst the Government says that it is going to act on low quality signage, the state must become much more determined in its effort to tackle the problem. Central government must equip local councils with powers to enforce and maintain signage standards across the country. This includes the council ensuring that it has the moral will to act and not view this as “nice to do” second order priority.
The failure of the fragmented state
Like many challenges in society the vitality of high streets is a complex one with responsibility sitting with many different stakeholders, including wider collective society itself.
Many of the challenges around high streets fall through the cracks of different agencies that are meant to have responsibility for whatever the particular issue is, so the state needs to be fundamentally rewired to tackle it.
The state must bring together the Home office, local authorities, police forces and the Treasury to clamp down on money laundering for instance. The state must become much more muscular and aggressive in both identifying the signs of money laundering and stamping it out. This should include preventing business rates from being paid for in cash so that the origin of funds are always traceable.
The unquestionable effect of illegal migration and county lines sits at the centre of much of this and far too many of the relevant powers are weak or dispersed to authorities that do not have the will or ability to crack down on the problem.
Much greater focus on tackling these issues is needed from all arms of the state, national and local, including arm’s length bodies, law enforcement and investigation. For far too long, a fragmented approach has allowed the problem to grow: it has swelled, not declined, in recent years.
With new Prime Minister Andy Burnham focused on devolution there is a risk of greater fragmentation of the state’s efforts to tackle big problems with more cracks for problems and solutions to fall through.
Short-termism
Alongside fragmentation, short-termism accounts for many policy failures where for far too long the political establishment has focused on short-term sticking plasters, gimmicks, and, in true Andy Burnham style, platitudes rather than long-term solutions which may not deliver complete results for some years down the track.
Societal behaviour challenges particularly are often generational in their nature, but a lack of immediate results is not a reason to shy away from these challenges. This is why the Conservative approach is to focus on what is right, rather than what is necessarily easy, and to take a long-term view, in the way that Kemi Badenoch is on the big issues facing our country today.
Investing in civic pride
Central government and Parliament generally sets the framework for society to operate within but local councils are both empowered and responsible, for so much that determines the success, attractiveness and vibrancy of places across the country.
Local authorities should invest a little more in the overall quality of the public realm including quality paving, keeping streets clean and tidy as well as the finishing touches, like flowers that give an area a distinct feel-good factor that evidences that local decision makers are serious custodians of their places.
It is those softer things that make our areas pleasant destinations for people to shop in and, ultimately, for businesses to invest in. Let us bring back trees in the public realm - there are plenty of instances where the planning system has prevented the planting of street trees because authorities are concerned about liabilities, but we know that the public like them, and with recent heatwaves in mind, trees are beneficial in helping to keep public spaces quite cool, as well as making them attractive.
Local economic investment plans
Prior to serving as a Member of Parliament, I spent five years as leader of Wychavon district council where I pursued investment prospectuses for three main towns.
They were not planning documents; they were targeted at strategic investors outlining why the towns were attractive destinations for inward investment.
They might outline that the scale of a population within a particular radius, what their socio-economic indices are as well as the human and natural capital that make places attractive, such as particular geography or infrastructure.
These are crucial to the business case for investment decisions made by those who want to sell goods and services.
Society, the state and councils are not doing all they can to ensure that the communities that we represent are ultimately very attractive destinations for businesses to come and spend their money.
A healthy dose of local vision and optimism for local identity, local people and local businesses are essential.
Couple this with local authorities maintaining an active register of vacant properties and they can join the dots between supply and demand for future premises in town centres.
Visibility of institutions
So what should Labour do?
The government must become pro-business, less fragmented and focus more on long-term
- This is no doubt-ideologically difficult for a group of people who have little business experience or who often view business as a cash cow to fund the largesse of the state but there is no such thing as “public money”, every penny that the state collects and spends is generated by some private enterprise or entrepreneurial endeavour.
- Labour needs to endorse the Conservative plan to abolish business rates for thousands of shops, hospitality venues, pubs and small retailers across the country to give our high street traders a boost.
- Labour should also back the Conservative’s Cheap Power Plan to give businesses and householders a reprieve from some of the highest energy costs in the world.
- Government must become more long-term focused and more joined up in its approach to tackling the underlying issues affective town centres, but Burnham’s devolution agenda risks new creating new cracks for solutions, and accountability to disappear down.
Focus intently on fraying social norms
- Local councils should take basic issues such as littering seriously and issue fixed penalty notices wherever they can. These should be publicised in local press and on social media so that society is aware that there are consequences for this poor, inexcusable behaviour.
- In a climate where Labour is intent on releasing some of society’s worst offenders, grassroots visibility of policing and justice visibly being done is key.
- Labour must back the Conservative campaign to Take Back Our Streets so that poor behaviour never goes unchallenged and has consequences. This means deploying an extra 10,000 police officers to root out antisocial behaviour, public drug consumption, knife crime and shoplifting.
- “Immediate justice” community sentences should be issued so that those committing lower-level offices clean up graffiti, streets and parks.
- Curbing dangerous e-bikes and e-scooters on pavements must be a priority for police who should mandatorily intervene and enforce increased penalties
Give prominence to institutions which underpin society
- Police forces across the country should prioritise greater local visibility and crucially publicise successful prosecutions of criminal or antisocial behaviour whenever it takes place.
- A greater visibility to justice being delivered and not just “seen to be done” is crucial to maintaining public confidence.
Put beauty at the heart of local re-generation
- Labour must put beautiful design back at the centre of the National Planning Policy Framework and should mandate that local councils develop local design codes, in consultation with local people, to ensure that future development will be attractive, and locally distinct rather than identikit monotony with no local or geographic distinction.
Local authorities as muscular custodians of their places
- Local authorities should be much more visionary in developing economic investment prospectuses for their places, leveraging natural, human, physical capital and the demographics of their area to attract inward investment that creates jobs and catalyses further investment.
- Local authorities should be much more assertive in pursuing those responsible for litter, breaches of regulatory frameworks, antisocial behaviour and not be afraid to make examples of the worst culprits to demonstrate that poor behaviour won’t be tolerated. In conjunction with local police this would have a noticeable effect on the safety, security and attractiveness of communities.
- Councils should consider small investments in the public realm as critical first order priorities which are indicative of how serious they take their pride of place.
There is no silver bullet to fixing our high streets, with many shared challenges but also plenty of unique, local factors which influence individual towns and villages.
But by taking a long-term view, re-establishing the basic principles that society collectively acts within, and doing fewer things well, we can reset the expectation of those who think our town centres are beyond salvage.
