Conservatives to use Opposition Day to back Britain's High Streets

Today, [Tuesday 4th November], the Conservatives will use an Opposition Day motion to force a vote on support for Britain's High Streets.

The motion calls on Labour to cut government spending in order to abolish business rates for thousands of retail, hospitality and leisure premises across the country. It also urges Labour to withdraw the Employment Rights Bill, which would increase the cost of doing business and make it harder for firms to take on new staff.

This debate comes at a critical time, with high street businesses increasingly anxious about the forthcoming Budget on 24th November especially after being hit in the last Budget by higher employer National Insurance contributions and a stealth rise in business rates.

Labour's policies are driving up costs, discouraging investment, and putting jobs and local businesses at risk. For many communities, the high street is the heart of local life, home to small businesses, family-run shops, pubs, and essential services such as post offices and pharmacies. Today's motion seeks to ensure these businesses are not taxed or regulated out of existence.

In recent months, business groups and trade associations have sounded the alarm over rising costs, warning that thousands of small firms could face closure due to a perfect storm of pressures including surging energy bills, higher employment costs and business rates.

The motion also highlights the need to tackle retail crime, which has surged in many towns and cities. The Conservatives are calling for a zero-tolerance approach to shoplifting and have pledged to recruit 10,000 more police officers so businesses feel protected and supported.

Commenting Andrew Griffith, Shadow Business and Trade Secretary said:

“Under Labour, our High Streets are faced with real decline hammered by a cocktail of tax rises, soaring energy costs and burdensome employment red tape that will send the cost of doing business through the roof.

Today's motion gives MPs the chance to back small businesses by cutting government spending, abolishing business rates for thousands of pubs, bars, cafés, pharmacies and post offices, reducing energy bills and cracking down on retail crime. Failing to support this package would be a dereliction of duty.

This debate will show that only the Conservatives have the plan, the team, and the leader with the backbone to stand up for Britain's High Streets.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The motion for the debate is as follows:

That this House calls on the Government to support high streets by cutting public expenditure to facilitate the abolition of business rates for thousands of retail, hospitality and leisure premises on the high street; and further calls on the Government not to proceed with the Employment Rights Bill to avoid hiring freezes and job losses, remove red tape for businesses, including by reviewing IR35, cut energy bills for businesses and tackle retail crime, thereby protecting key pillars of local communities including post offices, pubs and pharmacies.

Labour have hammered our high streets:

• Labour's first budget doubled business rates for high street businesses, hiking business rates for the average pub from £4,017 to £9,642. At Autumn Budget 2024, Rachel Reeves cut business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses from 75 per cent to 40 per cent, increasing business rates for high street firms by 140 per cent. This increase means the average pubs business rates increased from £4,017 to £9,642 (HMT, Autumn Budget 2024, 30 October 2024, link; Beer Today, 22 January 2025, link).

• Labour have increased the cost of hiring a worker by £1,000 a year, blocking businesses from growing. The Employment Rights Bill will impose over 40 new workplace regulations on businesses at a cost of £154 per worker and their £25 billion tax raid through the National Insurance Jobs Tax will cost at least £800 per worker, totalling £954 per worker per year (ONS, A01: Summary of labour market statistics, 12 August 2025, link; DBT, Employment Rights Bill: Economic analysis, October 2024, link; OBR, Economic and Fiscal Outlook, 30 October 2024, link; Conservative Research Department Analysis, 12 September 2025, available on request).

That is why our high streets are suffering:

• Research by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) found that footfall has declined on high streets. Research by the BRC found that retail footfall decreased by 1.8 per cent in September compared to August, with high street footfall decreasing by 2.5 per cent, retail park by 0.8 per cent and shopping centre by 2 per cent (BRC, Press Release, 10 October 2025, link).

• The Co-Op has warned that 60,000 small shops are at risk without business rates reform. Research by the Co-Op found that 77 per cent of small high street shop owners in England say business rates reform is essential to their survival, putting 60,000 small shops and 150,000 jobs at risk (Co-Op, Press Release, 13 October 2025, link).

• Kris Hamer, Director of Insight at the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said that ‘darker days' are coming for retailers because of the National Insurance Jobs Tax. Kris Hamer, Director of Insight at the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said: ‘Darker days are coming as April brought an additional £5 billion in costs to retailers from increases in Employer National Insurance Contributions and NLW. This is set to increase to £7 billion once the new packaging tax is introduced later this year. On top of this, proposed changes to business rates could see 4,000 shops facing higher costs, putting local jobs and businesses at risk across the country. If the Government wants to protect our high streets, it must ensure no shop pays more under the reforms' (BRC, Press Release, 23 May 2025, link).

• Sir Tim Martin, the founder of Wetherspoons, has warned that pubs have been ‘squeezed … by a rocketing wage bill'. MARTIN: ‘The hospitality industry has been squeezed between a doubling of energy costs since 2019 and a rocketing wage bill - pushing up costs, simultaneously, for all suppliers to the industry. The problem is an unthinking retreat from market forces, with the politicisation of the commanding heights of enterprise - wages and energy - and a blissful unawareness of the long-term economic consequences' (The Daily Express, 25 October 2025, link).

• Research by UKHospitality found that the hospitality sector accounted for 53 per cent of all job losses since the budget. Research by UKHospitality found that one in 25 jobs in hospitality have been lost since the Autumn Budget, equivalent to 89,000, with the sector accounting for 53 per cent of all job losses since the Budget. Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospiltality, said: ‘The Government needs to recognise the devastating impact of its tax increases on working people and communities across the country. It should take action at the Budget to reverse this damage by lowering business rates, fixing NICs and cutting VAT' (UKHospitality, Press Release, August 2025, link).

The Conservatives have a plan to support our high streets to create a stronger economy:

• We will introduce a 100 per cent business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, saving them thousands in tax. 250,000 businesses will benefit from the relief, delivering substantial savings that can then be reinvested in better premises, more staff and lower prices, and lifting thousands out of business rates altogether. The relief will be 100 per cent, capped at £110,000 per business (HMT, Press Release, 13 November 2024, link).

• Our Cheap Power Plan will cut energy bills for businesses and households, giving them more money to invest. Our Cheap Power Plan will cut electricity bills by 20 per cent, equivalent to £165, for the average household. This will also benefit high street businesses, with the average restaurant saving £5,000 and the average pub saving £1,100. We will make this saving by axing the carbon tax and ending Renewable Obligation Contracts (Kemi Badenoch, Conference Speech, 8 October 2025, link).

• Labour are consulting on closing local post offices, with up to half of them at risk. Labour hammered the Post Office network with tax, including a more than doubling of business rates, £45 million from the Jobs Tax and £8 million from the Unemployment Bill. Now, the government are consulting on withdrawing financial support for the Post Office network, which could see up to half of them close (DBT, Open Consultation, 14 July 2025, link).

• Our plan to abolish business rates will help the high streets by boosting spending on home improvements. Analysis shows that when people move home they spend tens of thousands in their local area on home improvements. Our plan to abolish stamp duty will get people moving by saving them thousands on stamp duty. This could generate £1.2 billion for local businesses, helping to rejuvenate the high street (Hansard, Vol 774 Col 195, 28 October 2025, link).

• We will hire 10,000 extra police officers, introduce intense hotspot patrols and triple the use of stop and search to make our high streets safer. We know that many people do not feel safe on the high street. That is why we will restore confidence by hiring 10,000 more police officers, introduce intense hotspot patrolling in 2,000 areas covering 25 per cent of all serious violent crime and robbery areas and triple stop and search using suspicion-less stop and search (ONS, Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2025, 4 July 2025, link; ONS, Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2025, 4 July 2025, link).