Labour pledge to boost Stoke-on-Trent's town centres and businesses

Labour would revive Stoke-on-Trent’s dying town centres through a reform of business rates and action on empty buildings, a senior MP has said. Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds visited Stoke-on-Trent on Thursday to talk to local small businesses about how a Labour government would help them, if the party won the next general election.

At the Vale Park event, organised by Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, Mr Reynolds set out how Labour would offer businesses ‘stability and certainty’, listing policies such as business rates reform, tackling late payments and increasing apprenticeships. Audience members from a wide range of sectors, including ceramics, brewing and energy, took the opportunity to quiz the shadow minister on how his party would address issues they faced.

Andy Slee, a director at Burslem-based Titanic Brewery, asked how Labour would ease the tax burden on businesses such as his, saying that Titanic paid a third of its turnover in tax, while online gambling companies only had to pay around seven per cent. Rob Flello, chief executive of the British Ceramic Confederation and a former Labour Stoke-on-Trent MP, asked about support for energy-intensive manufacturers affected by the current drive to decarbonise industry.

Speaking after the event, Mr Reynolds said that Labour’s policies to reform business rates, reduce the number of empty properties and tackle anti-social behaviour would boost Stoke-on-Trent’s town centres. He said: “At the moment you can get small business rates relief. But if you’re a successful business and want to open a second branch you would lose that, so we want to try and remove those disincentives to expansion.

“I think the powers for local authorities to tackle vacant buildings are really significant. You might have a bank leaving a high street, leaving a big premise, and it’s not uncommon to see it remain vacant for over a decade. The overall health of a town centre is blighted by vacant buildings.

“Another issue that comes up time and time again is crime and anti-social behaviour. Our policy is to implement the police efficiency programme, and put that money into frontline officers, focused on anti-social behaviour and town centres. If it’s not a pleasant urban environment, no customers will come.”

Mr Reynolds also claimed that the Conservative government’s ‘Levelling Up’ drive was not succeeding, despite funding announcements like Stoke-on-Trent’s £56 million windfall, due to the lack of a plan for business.

He said: “Ultimately, levelling up is about having access to jobs and a good career, and a good life in your area. That has to come from industrial policy and a small business plan. If businesses aren’t growing, providing people with jobs, people have to move away from those areas.

“Those funding announcements are one part of it, but you’ve got to do it alongside economic policy that’s about delivering those good jobs.”

Mr Reynolds admitted that there was not currently a ‘definitive answer’ on how to help the energy-intensive ceramics industry survive in the UK while decarbonising, but he insisted Labour would not just let the sector die.

He said: “If you look at an industry like steel, there are answers like hydrogen and electrification. They don’t yet exist for ceramics. So the question is whether we’re going to work with the manufacturers over the long-term as innovation finds those solutions, or why we going to shut it down? A lot of the answer will be around hydrogen, so it will take time.

“We’re absolutely clear, we have no desire to hit climate targets by shutting down industries, which may result in increased carbon emissions overall as other parts of the world fill the gap.”

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