Usdaw welcomes select committee’s call for high street review over Covid

The cross-party House of Commons Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee report published this week includes recommendations which:

• call for a full “lessons learned” review on the high streets to be conducted ahead of the main independent Covid-19 inquiry
• support the principle of an online sales tax
• call for the Government to move away from competitive bidding processes for town regeneration schemes and shift to greater local devolution of funding

Paddy Lillis,  Usdaw general secretary, said: “We very much welcome this significant intervention by MPs from across the House of Commons, which largely backs the retail recovery plan that Usdaw has called for throughout the pandemic.

“You only have to walk down any high street to see how the retail sector has been impacted by the pandemic, which heightened the difficulties retail already faced.”

Lillis added that the government needed to “level the playing field between online and bricks-and-mortar retail”, partly through a 1% online sales levy which could be used to fund a cut in business rates.

Lillis said: “A retail recovery plan must also recognise the contribution of the people who work in the industry.

“For too long retail has been a byword for low pay and insecure jobs.

“If we want retail to prosper, we need to make sure that retail jobs are good jobs. We hope the Government is listening.”