Communities Secretary Steve Reed's speech at Business in the Community

Communities Secretary Steve Reed's speech at Business in the Community

Good afternoon, I'm sorry I'm the third politician you've had today but it's certainly a pleasure for me to be here to speak to all of you about our work.

[Inaudible]

So can I first by start by thanking you Sue and everyone at the BITC for all the work you are leading at Business in the Community and the change you are driving in our communities.

I know that for over 40 years now Business in the Community have promoted responsible business and shown the benefits it can bring to every part on the country.

We are nation of a thousand neighbourhoods, where our identity and our sense of belonging, all depend on what we see around us.

When the streets are clean, and our high streets thriving – that's good. 

But when shops are empty and crime is rife – those are the time, people ask what's going wrong. 

I know that for Britain to get those good times rolling again, we need the public, private, and voluntary sectors to come together.

So businesses – like yours – are at the heart of our communities.

You are what make our places thrive, you are why people have pride in their hometown.

And we know that if we are to match the ambition that people have for their hometown, our government must support more businesses like yours to get behind their community.

That's why community businesses are central to our Pride in Place programme. 

Across nearly 300 of our poorest communities, we are rebuilding trust by handing power and funding to communities that have been ignored for too long.

In total, nearly £6bn is being given to Neighbourhood Boards, made up of local people, to spend on whatever the local community believes it needs to succeed.  

This money won't end up in the pockets of remote consultants like in previous programmes.  

Instead, led by the communities in charge – we'll see this money flow directly into the heart of local high streets and towns. 

As part of the engagement process, places like Scarborough, Mansfield and Runcorn have funded local businesses to find out the priorities of local residents – bringing economic benefits through supply chains. 

Through the publications of their 10-year plans we are beginning to see how local tradesmen, electricians, and construction companies will be involved in new youth centres, libraries and community CCTV. 

Just think about some of the projects being designed – like the new play space in Irvine, the new pool in Abroath and the Youth Zone they built in Wrexham. 

Building each of these will mean more money being spent throughout supply chains and across the economy. 

We want Pride in Place to support small businesses and we want to see Neighbourhood Boards using local suppliers wherever they can.

Later this year we will publish guidance to make sure Neighbourhood Boards have our full support to use local suppliers and invest in local businesses.

Business in the Community's Place programme shows what is possible when businesses back their communities. In 19 places, they are bringing the community together to make change happen. 

We want to build on this, and I am delighted that our Pride in Place Programme reaches communities where Business in the Community have already got to work. 

Some areas – like Redcar and Cleveland – have a local Business in the Community representative sat on their board and I want to see that everywhere.

And in other neighbourhoods, like Weston in Southampton, the local BITC lead is helping to reach out across the community to get more local people involved. 

But we don't want to stop there. 

We will support every Board to work with local businesses and social enterprises – because those wider partnerships are how we deliver the change local people want to see, and we are already seeing the results of that.

This programme amounts to £6bn for the most deprived communities in Britain – if we can use that to support community business, we can make this investment go so much further. 

Working with you, Pride in Place can also be an engine for work and skills – creating a pipeline of employment that will sustain long-term regeneration. 

Bexhill-on-sea is a great example of how this can work – they are now repurposing a town centre building as a co-working and skills hub.

In Darwen, the local board are supporting bespoke programmes to bridge the skills gap and support scaling up. 

And in Carlton, the community are developing a skills programme to improve the employment prospects of offenders. 

These are only a few examples of the work under way. 

Every neighbourhood in the programme has been selected because of deprivation – and so often that is because they lack good, decent work. 

I still remember the day when I was younger that Dad, my Grandparents, my Aunt and my Uncle all lost their jobs when the printing industry collapsed in Watford.

That pain they felt at being thrown on the scrapheap still lingers right across this nation's former industrial heartlands. 

If the Pride in Place programme is going to be a success, it must bring new employment and skills that are the pathway to a better future.

We need this ‘change you can feel' in every part of the country, but the Pride in Place programme can only focus on the most deprived neighbourhoods.

Through a wider focus on these principles of place right across government, we can make sure everyone lives in an area they are proud of and they can thrive.

Earlier this month we announced plans for a new Neighbourhood Guarantee to set out clear expectations of local, regional and national government, to bring visible improvements right to people's doorsteps.

The Guarantee will include clear expectations for keeping streets clean and accessing the full range of public services.

To deliver this, we will launch a new digital tool which will show our progress in every single neighbourhood.

The guarantee will benefit every part of the country, and that includes local businesses.

The point is this – more attractive high streets draw people into town centres, and that means people spend more in local retailers and local hospitality venues.

Places to be proud of creates consumer confidence, and that pushes more money through local supply chains.

Improving how every neighbourhood looks is good for the economy, good for business, and good for communities.

That's why we need to guarantee minimum standards.

This is about a recognition that Whitehall alone cannot back the pride people have in their area.

[Political content removed]

This time we are putting it in the hands of those who know their area best and that's the local businesses and local people who live there.

Alongside the Pride in Place programme, we are devolving radical new powers to Mayors, councils and communities.

They are the drivers of local economic growth, and they are the ones who create jobs and put money in people's pockets

The new right to request process means that Mayors have a direct route to ask for new powers – and we can then more easily devolve them.

Already we have signed off on more powers to extend public transport and provide innovation funding.

This will support real economic growth, bringing areas out of generational stagnation, and lifting the strain on welfare budgets.

Our approach to high streets too will echo the pride people have in their town and their local city centres.

The state of the local high street is one of the ways people measure whether, not just their area, but the whole country is going backwards or forwards.   

They feel a profound sense of loss when a place they are proud of and which was thriving is now boarded up, closed down, and covered in graffiti. 

We all know that the 20th century model of high streets isn't coming back, but we should never settle for anything less than a future better than the past.

Our village, town and city centres need to once again become true civic centres – the places where people go to meet friends and family.

We need to support retail and hospitality, but also turn empty units into public services and community spaces.

I want our high streets to be thriving – full of people spending time together.

We need the right mix of retailers and venues on the high street.

Right now, there are too often vape shops, bookies, and barbers shops that don't appear to have any customers. 

The answer to how we can renew our high streets rests in supporting good business, and clamping down on those who don't play by the rules.

We've already given councils new powers to limit the number of bookies in their areas. 

And now we're giving councils further powers to restrict the kind of shops that bring down an area down.

Everyone can see organised crime has been moving onto our high streets, and yet councils have lacked the power to deal with it.   

That changes with our new High Street Organised Crime Unit in the Home Office.

This is about supporting businesses that are good for the community, by taking on those that are not.

Our high streets are ecosystems – and vacant shops are bad for business.

Through the high streets rental auctions programme, we are reducing vacancies by helping councils to forcibly take over the lease of long term vacant premises.

This will open these spaces to new tenants - not just because taking out eyesores, but providing businesses with access to tenancies at below market rent.

In the first year of the programme, this helped bring down vacancy rates in one of our pilot areas - Harworth & Bircotes - from 11% to just 3%.

Just imagine if we could replicate that on every high street.

Today I can announce an expansion of the programme with an additional £10m over the next two years, giving councils access to more refurbishment grants.

I want all councils to use these powers and tackle vacancies.

It's all part of a wider plan to support local businesses to drive change in their area.

Just this week we announced changes to the planning system to speed up decision-making.

New regulations will let planning officers – rather than council committees –make the call on minor applications.

This means that if shopkeepers or pub landlords want to make improvements, they'll be able to get on with it much quicker.

Now we have passed the landmark English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act, we also have new powers to support the hospitality industry.

In historic city centre nightlife areas like Soho, businesses are in a constant battle with groups that intentionally try to close down local hospitality businesses and stop new venues from opening

Through the new powers we've just taken, we will give the Mayor, who's got a London-wide mandate, the ability to overrule important licensing decisions, so that hospitality venues can stay open, create jobs and provide for the millions who just want to go out and enjoy themselves.

The future of our high streets relies on a partnership, and I know that many of you will have formed that through Business Improvement Districts.

We want to let BIDs get on and make their area thrive.

That is why our High Streets Strategy will also include measures to modernise the BID rule book.

We will simplify voting procedures, strengthen transparency and accountability,  and crucially, include property owners in the process.

This will unlock huge potential for investment.

Across the country , businesses and BIDs have shown what they can contribute to revitalising high streets – as a government we need to support that, and show you that we are on your side.

This is about a politics that respects people enough to back the pride they feel in their community.

Respect for hometowns and for high streets.

respect for the roads and the neighbourhoods that people live in.

Partnering with business is the way that we can build that kind of politics.

It is central to our Pride in Place programme, our Neighbourhood Guarantee, our devolution and our approach to high street regeneration.

But it must also be a principle embedded right across government.

I look forward to working with all of you, as we outline a radical new approach that shares the pride people have in their own community and in their own home town.