Within days of entering Downing Street, Andy Burnham has moved fast on a number of policy pledges, announcing a cap on bus fares, a cut to VAT on household electricity bills and a 20 per cent reduction in business rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues.
I understand why hospitality gets the headlines. Pubs are visible, they are loved, and they make for a good photo opportunity. But I have to ask the question that thousands of independent retailers are asking me right now. What about the rest of the high street?
This is not the first time hospitality has been singled out for special treatment on business rates. It happened last year too, when changes to the system left many shops facing bills that have more than doubled since 2024, while pubs picked up a discount. Now it has happened again.
Meanwhile, the shops that sit alongside are left carrying an ever-heavier load. Seventeen thousand closed in 2025 and many thousands of jobs went with them. That number will keep rising if we carry on treating one sector as the whole story of the high street.
This is not about begrudging pubs their support – it’s about fairness. A high street only works when all of it is thriving.
If Burnham’s serious about a high street renaissance in every postcode – and his early messaging suggests he is – then he needs a plan that goes further than pubs and clubs. We need a permanent reform of business rates for all high street businesses – not a piecemeal discount for one sector at a time. It means finally getting to grips with online marketplace sellers who avoid VAT and undercut shops that play by the rules. And it means closing the low-value import loophole that lets cheap goods arrive from overseas without paying their fair share of tax.
At Bira, supporting high streets is not a slogan – it’s what we do at grassroots level.
That work continues this year with the Love Your High Street Awards, which invite the public to nominate and vote for their most-loved independent shops. Nominations are open from Monday 3 August to Sunday 30 August, with the public vote then opening on 14 September. The overall winner will be announced on Monday 26 October, just ahead of Love Your High Street Week itself, which runs from 9 – 15 November.
Last year’s inaugural awards saw hundreds of independent retailers nominated, with the final contested by eight outstanding shops. The public vote crowned Headhunters – a barbershop-cum-railway museum in Northern Ireland – where customers can combine a haircut with their interest in local railway history. That is what independent retail does at its best.
If the prime minister wants to see what a thriving high street looks like, he does not need to look far. He just needs to see the thousands of independents in this country who never stopped showing up for their towns.