Page ^ Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 13, 2019
CAMPAIGN
HIGH
SAVE OUR
STREETS
FIFTY leading retailers
today demand an urgent
overhaul of Britain’s toxic
business rates system to
save the high street.
The bosses of many of the
country’s best-known chains –
including John Lewis, Sains-
bury’s and Marks & Spencer –
warn that sky-high rates are
killing town centres.
In a powerful joint letter to Sajid
Javid, they urge the Chancellor to
reform the tax before it is too late.
The retail leaders, who also
include the bosses of Boots, B&Q
and Harrods, say the combination
of internet shopping and punitive
taxes is having a ‘dramatic’ impact
on business. New figures show
that more than one in ten high
street stores now stand empty.
The letter is also backed by
executives from Pret-a-Manger,
Greggs, DFS, Iceland, Asda,
Debenhams, Primark, the Co-op,
Hamleys and River Island.
The Daily Mail has repeatedly
highlighted the crisis in the retail
sector, which threatens to ruin
many of the country’s town cen-
tres. This newspaper’s long-run-
ning Save Our High Streets cam-
paign calls for a level playing field
between traditional shops and
their newer online rivals.
Business rates are expected to
rake in £31.3billion of tax in this
financial year, according to the
Office for Budget Responsibility.
Organised by the British Retail
Consortium (BRC), today’s letter
takes aim at the ‘broken’ system
and says: ‘This outdated tax is
hindering our plans for invest-
ment, holding back productivity
growth and detrimentally impact-
ing communities up and down thecountry. The UK has one of the
highest commercial property
taxes in the world.
‘The effect on many high streetsstop them rising by inflation, a
more efficient appeal process,
‘improvement relief ’ for shops
that spend money to upgrade
their premises, and reforms to
make the system simpler.
It follows an appeal from Tesco
boss Dave Lewis. Writing in the
Mail in May, he called for rates to
be cut, and a new online sales tax.
Traditional stores have been hit
hard by the rise of the internet,
with household names such as
House of Fraser, Debenhams and
HMV rescued from administra-
tion. Even stalwart M&S is being
forced to shut 100 outlets.
Last month 10.3 per cent of
stores were vacant, according to
the BRC and data firm Spring-board. And the number of people
visiting bricks and mortar shops
was 1.9 per cent lower in July than
it had been a year earlier, the big-
gest fall for seven years.
Retailers claim business rates,
which are linked to a property’s
value on the rental market, penal-
ise high street stores.
Shops in prime locations with
few customers can pay far more
than warehouses operated by
online rivals such as Amazon.
Stores are assessed and charged
a percentage of their so-called
rateable value each year. For large
sites it stands at 50.4 per cent.
More than 7,500 stores closed in
2018, analysis by the Local Data
Company shows, and the BRC
estimates that 70,000 jobs were
lost. Among the worst hit areas is
Burslem in Stoke-on-Trent, where
it was estimated in April that 44
out of 130 shops were vacant. The
once-thriving town lost 13 inde-
pendent and two chain outlets
last year, and gained none.
A Treasury spokesman said:
‘Last month, the Prime Minister
announced a £3.6billion Towns
Fund to support our high streets
and town centres.’
Comment – Page 16FIFTY top bosses in joint
plea to save the high street
From Asda and Greggs to John Lewis
and Primark, chains echo the Mail’s
call to reform ‘broken’ business rates
IT has been a criminal offence to use
a hand-held mobile phone while driving
since 2003.
Motorists can be punished for making
phone calls, browsing the internet, or
sending text messages with their
mobiles in their hands.
The offence is currently subject
to a fixed penalty notice of £200 and six
penalty points. However, it does not
apply if drivers are using their phone in
hands-free mode, for example with abluetooth headset or a speakerphone
that is built into the car.
Police have the power to stop and
fine a motorist if they believe they
have been distracted by using a hands-
free mobile and so are not in control of
their vehicle.
Using a phone at the wheel can be a
contributory factor in other offences
subject to much higher penalties,
such as causing death by careless or
dangerous driving.Penalty that doesn’t cover all calls
phone has continued to rise. In 2017, there
were 43 deaths and 135 serious injuries in
collisions where phone use was a contribu-
tory factor.
In their report today, the MPs from the
transport committee urge the Government
to consider whether penalties should be
increased further. They also warn that for
the law to be effective there must be a cred-
ible threat of being caught.
The number of drivers who received a Fixed
Penalty Notice, were sent on an awareness
course or faced court action fell by more than
two-thirds in the six years from 2011. Some
experts have blamed this decline on cuts to
the number of traffic officers.
Labour MP Lilian Greenwood, chairman
of the committee, said: ‘If mobile phone use
while driving is to become as socially unac-
ceptable as drink-driving, much more effort
needs to go into educating drivers.
‘Offenders also need to know there is a cred-
ible risk of being caught, and that there are
serious consequences for being caught.There
is also a misleading impression that hands-
free use is safe. Any use of a phone distracts
from a driver’s ability to pay full attention.’
The committee heard from experts that a
driver using a phone – hand-held or hands-
free – is four times more likely to crash.
Dr Gemma Briggs, a senior lecturer in
psychology at the Open University, told the
MPs that even for around five minutes after
a driver has ended a phone conversation,
they are still at a significantly increased risk
of a crash because they remain distracted.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of
Accidents has said drivers who use a phone,
even via hands-free, fail to see road signs,
and are more likely to ‘tailgate’ the vehicle
in front and take longer to brake.
Comment – Page 16Driver on phone just before
crash killed pregnant mum
and town centres has been dra-
matic. Business rates often repre-
sent the tipping point between
opening a new store or a store’s
viability and its closure.’ The let-
ter calls for a freeze on rates toBy James Burton
Chief City Correspondent
Continued from Page One
‘A credible risk
of being caught’radical proposal, which will now be exam-
ined by the Department for Transport, is
likely to be welcomed by road safety groups,
particularly as figures suggest the number of
crashes involving mobiles is rising.
However, motoring groups have ques-
tioned how banning the use of hands-free
technology would affect delivery drivers,
who often rely on it, as well as taxi drivers.
During the select committee’s inquiry,
Nicholas Lyes, the RAC’s head of roads
policy, said: ‘How would companies interact
with their staff, particularly if they were
doing deliveries, or if they were taxi compa-
nies? How would you necessarily enforce it
without the technology that could pick up
the call that was taking place?’
In 2016, the Daily Mail launched its End
The Mobile Madness campaign following a
series of deaths caused by reckless drivers
who were talking on the phone or texting.
The campaign demanded stiffer punish-
ments for drivers caught using a hand-held
mobile at the wheel.
The following year, in March 2017, minis-
ters doubled the punishment for using
hand-held mobile phones while driving
from three penalty points to six – and
increased fines from £100 to £200. However,
figures show the number of people dying in
crashes that involve a driver using a mobile
Passenger seat: Rebecca EvansA HEAVILY pregnant mother
and her unborn daughter
were killed when a BMW
driver ploughed into her
car seconds after ending a
hands-free phone call.
Rebecca Evans, 27, a
charity worker, was eight
months pregnant when she
died in the crash on the
M in 2016.
Her two-year-old son Cian
suffered serious injuries
including a fractured skull.
She was in the passenger
seat of a Peugeot 07 car
driven by her partner
when businessman Craig
Scott hit the back of
the stationary car at
around 70mph.
In a statement read to
Swansea Crown Court, Miss
Evans’s partner Alex Evans
said: ‘I saw this car coming
up behind us.
‘I think I said something
like “He’s coming up a bit
fast. I don’t think he’s slow-ing down”.’ He described
an ‘almighty bang’. He
described the aftermath
of the crash as chaos as
witnesses rushed to help.
Mr Evans said: ‘I saw them
pull Becca from the car and
I saw the blood on her
dress. I knew then that our
daughter had gone.
‘I knew that straight away.
Not in a million years did I
think I would lose Becca. I
screamed and cried for
them both.’
Cian was flown to hospitalwhere he was found to
have bleeding between his
brain and skull and a
depressed skull fracture.
Both his legs were broken.
Scott told police he had
been distracted by some-
thing on a motorway
bridge just before the
crash, and ended a hands-
free call with work about
five minutes before.
But phone data showed
the call was actually
between 1 and 3 seconds
before the tragedy.
Judge Keith Thomas
said Scott had taken his
eyes off the road for a
‘relatively substantial
period of time’.
Last year he was jailed
for three years after being
found guilty of causing
death by dangerous
driving and causing
serious injury by danger-
ous driving.
The businessman was
also disqualified from driv-
ing for five years.Jailed: Craig ScottBy Xantha LeathamV