Protecting our High Streets

High streets are the heart and soul of our rural towns and villages. Across Newbury and West Berkshire, we’re extremely fortunate to have many fantastic independent shops, from the world-renowned antique stores in Hungerford, to Fifi and Moose in Newbury, and EJ wicks in Lambourn, which has served local residents for generations. 

However, they’re under enormous pressure, and a shocking  38 shops closed per day in 2024. As my ongoing push to keep Hungerford and Thatcham Post office open shows, we must not allow our precious high streets to become sites of decline. 

But as crippling rises to National Insurance contributions, business rates and unfair rates system pile pressure onto many legitimate, independent retailers, bad actors are seeing this as an opportunity to swoop in: exploiting empty premises and using them as a front for money laundering, counterfeit goods, and antisocial behaviour. 

Honest traders lose footfall, law-abiding residents avoid town, and people feel that the place they grew up in is changing for the worse. 

Staggeringly, the National Crime Agency estimates that at least £1 billion of criminal cash is laundered through UK High Street stores each year. The criminal network’s tentacles do not stop at city boundaries, and neither should the response. 

So yesterday in Parliament, I challenged the Home Secretary on how the Government’s new £30 million High Street Organised Crime Unit will support our smaller market towns such as Hungerford, Newbury, and Thatcham, rather than solely focusing on the units early rollout in metropolitan hotspots. 

Our rural communities deserve the same protection as anywhere else. 

The Home Secretary confirmed that every police force can bid for enhanced activity funding through the NCA, and I will be writing to Thames Valley police to seek clarity on how they intend to access that funding and use it across our communities in West Berkshire.

This fresh national crackdown is an important start, but it won’t rid our high streets of this growing problem. The Government must take a sustained frontline response that combines true community policing, local planning reforms such as the Biboc Act in the Netherlands, properly resourced Trading Standards teams following 50% cuts to funding during 14 years of Tory government, and an injection of power into local authorities who should be given the ability to seek closure orders and swiftly shut down shops engaging in criminality.  

This is the joined-up protection our high streets deserve, and I will continue to stand up for independent businesses that play by the rules and ensure that illegal activity has no place in our communities.