The coalition Government should not take any lessons from the Labour party on economic management. We all know that we had the biggest bust in living memory under the previous Government, that under them the country was running a structural deficit long before the banks went bust and that since this Government came to power 1 million jobs have been created in the private sector. Growth might have only just come back into the economy and things might be slow, but we are building on a sustainable basis and not on the basis of borrowing and more spending, as we saw under the Labour party.
That brings me on to the points that I would like to make with my other hat on, as chair of the all-party group on town centres. I am passionately interested in issues relating to town centres, so I am concerned about the effect of delaying the revaluation. Town centres have been under the cosh for a number of years, internet retail is booming, out-of-town shopping centres are still buoyant and having an extremely good time in the main, and the net effect is that our town centres are currently in decline. Many of the national multiple
retailers, which, only a few years before 2008, many of us were probably criticising for creating clone town centres, are now retrenching and consolidating their estates; when leases or break clauses come up, they are deciding to close town centre stores in favour of stores in large retail parks and of investment that they can make in internet retailing, because they can see that the writing is on the wall.
If we decide not to proceed with the revaluation at this point, we risk causing further damage to our town centres. Since 2008, town-centre property values in my constituency have fallen like a stone, and rental income has reduced in the prime rental areas by 38%. Business rates are predicated on property value, and not revaluing the businesses in town centres seriously undermines the progress the Government have made on these issues. I welcome the Mary Portas review and am glad that the Government have taken on most of her recommendations, although such work could be undermined by the current proposals and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous) mentioned, by local authorities that consider their car parks to be cash cows and think nothing of putting up car-parking charges year on year. We need to be careful that we do not price our town centres out of existence in a number of ways.
It is incumbent on the Government to be more creative. I would not personally advocate putting up business rates throughout the country, but the situation needs to be re-examined. My hon. Friend the Member for Waveney was critical of the valuation office figures for the proposed review, because they were now probably well out of date given the difference in economic circumstances between 2008 and now. The issue, therefore, needs to be looked at more carefully; we need to look at what we can do to support our town centres.
I hope that the Minister can give me, as chair of the all-party group, more confidence that the Government are listening to the concerns of those running businesses in our town centres—small, independent retailers and the large, multiple retailers which are seriously considering withdrawing their stores from many of our town centres. I hope that he takes the message back to the Government and that they reconsider what we can do to support such a vulnerable group of businesses in our community hubs. Most of our constituencies rely on town centres as the community centre for a local area, and we ignore that fact and the community values of our town centres and what they provide at our peril.
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