Brandon Lewis means business as he plans high street revival

Notwithstanding the “£1bn package” headlines last Friday, weren’t the high street announcements just more talk and no action?

A billion pounds is pretty substantial. As well as our consultation on parking, there was the Autumn Statement, which is really going to do something with business rates. The 2% cap is a massive statement.

But this is yet another consultation, which could potentially take years?

We have to consult before we can implement, it’s the law of the land but if we can get this consultation done then you could be seeing something in the first part of next year.

The 2% cap on rates still leaves businesses facing a £525m rise, of which bricks and mortar retailers will pay nearly a quarter. Isn’t the move too little too late, especially for struggling smaller businesses?

We have to work with the financial pressures we’ve inherited. We’ve still got the debt from the last government to deal with. But we hope this will give some breathing space to businesses.

They now get the opportunity of a £1,000 discount and if they want to expand they can get a second property without losing that business’s rate relief.

The BRC describes business rates as “not fit for purpose”. What will be done to fix it?

Business rates cover all businesses. Retail is between 20% to 25% of that. It’s a big chunk but it’s a chunk and anything you do to that has a knock-on effect.

You sound doubtful that a better system can be found?

Nobody has yet been able to come to me with an alternative system that works and does not create lots and lots of losers.

Everybody has been arguing - mainly surveyors who want to make money out of the revaluations, of course - that we should have gone ahead with the revaluation, but retail would have lost out. The only one that’s done a rounded proper audit of this is the Valuation Office Agency and they found there would be 800,000 losers compared with 300,000 winners. Pubs would have been big losers, petrol stations, retail and independents would have lost out. I’ll be interested to see what the BRC comes up with.

Somebody was talking about a turnover tax. That assumes [an independent] would tell you what their turnover is.

Everyone from Tesco and Sainsbury’s to independents have called for measures to level the playing field between on and offline companies on tax. What is the government going to do about it?

I do understand the points they make. First of all these people have huge online presences themselves. They also benefit from retailing in an online environment. You’ve got to be very careful because there are businesses that employ a lot of people and you’ve got to be cautious about the unintended consequences. It’s not difficult for people to move to Calais and set up there. If there were a simple solution, somebody would have come up with it by now. The reality is a property-based tax is difficult to avoid.

What is the government doing to help high streets capitalise on the potential benefits of online as well as the threats? Is the competition for ideas announced last week not a bit of a gimmick?

We will put multimillions of pounds into finding innovative products and services to make our town centres more attractive to citizens and digital shoppers. BIS will set out more detail in the new year. Retailers like Blockbuster and HMV failed due to weaknesses in their business models and an inability to keep up with the pace of change.

An ACS report last week showed 76% of retail development since the NPPF came in has been out of town. Has the town-centre-first policy failed?

“Mary has raised the profile of town centres such that The Grocer is sitting here talking to me about it today. She’s done a phenomenal job”

Brandon Lewis

The survey is totally unrepresentative given it has such a small sample size.

It’s two years since the Portas Review. Do you believe the government’s record of helping the high street can be judged a success?

I’d argue we’ve made quite a lot of progress - the work with the Portas Pilots, the 333 town teams, the money we’ve put into the ATCM and the work with the Future High Streets Forum. Mary had 28 recommendations and we’ve acted on 27. I’ve been to see quite a few Pilots but the clue is in the name. Pretty much every single one is doing something different. I was in Braintree and they got car parking prices down to 10p. Footfall is up by the best part of 50,000 now. They’ve got their version of a pop-up shop going, allowing businesses to set up for free.

But can you point to lessons learnt on a national basis?

The biggest lesson is the very fact they are all different. What I’m absolutely convinced doesn’t work is having the clunking fist of the government going round the country.

Do you think the publicity surrounding Portas has hindered government strategy?

Mary has raised the profile of town centres such that The Grocer is sitting here talking to me about it today. She’s done a phenomenal job and it has motivated some of those towns to look at what’s possible. Her enthusiasm and drive to see the high street succeed is amazing.

Do you stand by your comments that the Grimsy report was “a load of crap”?

This was a joke that was taken out of context. There are parts of his report I don’t agree with but I rang Bill to explain my view and have spoken since and get on OK.