DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Move to breathe life back into our towns
DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Move to breathe life back into our towns
For anyone gauging the true economic carnage caused by the pandemic, look no further than our deserted high streets.
One in seven shops around the country now lies empty, many having failed to recover from the ravages of lockdown.
Not only has such devastation resulted in painful job losses, it has blighted once- thriving town centres.
So government plans to force landlords to let out retail units that have been vacant for longer than six months through compulsory rental auctions is enormously welcome.
One in seven shops around the country now lies empty, many having failed to recover from the ravages of lockdown. Shuttered shops are seen above in Manchester in May 2020
Such a move would provide opportunities for thousands of entrepreneurs, create jobs, and provide much-needed income for other small businesses in the area.
For years, life has been sucked from our once-bustling town centres, with high street firms crippled by soaring rents and extortionate business rates.
Cafes and restaurants which managed to survive Covid are struggling as thousands of workers refuse to return to the office, particularly among the civil service where, we revealed on Saturday, many spend less than 40 per cent of their week in the office.
Meanwhile, bricks and mortar traders still face increased competition from online behemoths which not only face fewer overheads, but also pay a pittance in tax.
True, shopping at a click of a mouse is now a fact of modern life.
But the Government must continue to do all that it can to nurture our traditional retailers – or risk Britain becoming a nation of ghost towns.
Unholy intervention
The Archbishop of Canterbury has once again entered the political arena by using his Easter sermon to denounce the Government’s plans to resettle asylum- seekers in Rwanda as ‘ungodly’.
Justin Welby is, of course, entitled to his opinion. But was it wise to risk alienating conscientious Anglicans by attacking a policy which, as our recent poll showed, has proved popular?
Justin Welby is, of course, entitled to his opinion. But was it wise to risk alienating conscientious Anglicans by attacking a policy which, as our recent poll showed, has proved popular?
Most reasonable people recognise that if we are to stop the hundreds of migrants who continue arriving here each day aboard unsafe dinghies, there needs to be a powerful deterrent to them doing so.
Not only will it prevent drownings, it will help undermine the vile human trafficking gangs who’ve made millions exploiting these desperate people.
The Government needed to act. Doing nothing would have been the real sin.
Saving the starving
The Kremlin’s campaign to starve innocent Ukrainian civilians is an act of true wickedness.
But thanks to kind-hearted Mail readers, who have donated an incredible £11million to our Mail Force refugee campaign, hundreds of thousands of aid boxes are now on their way to help feed desperately hungry victims of Putin’s evil war.
It is not just the Mail which is thrilled by this extraordinary act of generosity.
Already Boris Johnson and President Volodymyr Zelensky have praised these donations which for thousands of Ukrainians will come as a godsend.
Now Sir Keir Starmer joins the applause, hailing your efforts as ‘wonderful’.
As the PM pointed out, your compassion is truly humbling. We salute you.
Petrochemicals billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, clearly no slouch when it comes to science, has handed ministers evidence which claims fracking could provide enough energy to power the UK for the next 50 years. The Government’s attitude toward fracking remains bewilderingly blinkered, cowered by the shrill eco-lobby. But considering our dog’s dinner of an energy policy, aren’t Sir Jim’s proposals at least worth considering?
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