For generations, our town centres have been the trading heart of our communities. They are at the core of healthy and prosperous local economies, a source of civic pride and the focal point of community life. But today too many of our high-street shops are in decline, with fewer customers and empty shop units.

Changes to people’s lifestyles have meant changes to the way they shop. The development of out-of-town retailing in some cases has had a detrimental effect on town centres across Wales. Shoppers like the convenience and choice offered by out-of-town retailers who provide free parking. Footfall in retail parks in Wales has seen an increase of over 4.6 per cent. This has caused a subsequent decline in footfall in our high streets. E-commerce is one of the fastest-growing markets in Europe. Retail figures for Great Britain in September this year show a 22 per cent increase in online sales compared with the same month last year.

So, our high streets are under pressure. This is reflected in shop vacancy rates. In 2014, 159 high-street shops closed in Newport. At present, one in eight retail premises in Wales stands empty. The latest Local Data Company report ranks Newport as one of the worst-performing town centres for retail and leisure vacancies, with a rate of over 25 per cent.

Welsh Conservatives have been calling for many years for a strategy to revive our high streets. And yet, in spite of warm words from successive Welsh Governments, it is clear that little has been achieved. We need urgent action to revitalise our high streets as centres of economic growth. We need a clear management strategy for our town centres. Poor parking facilities, high parking charges, traffic congestion and the lack of public transport all serve to deter customers from shopping in town centres, and in certain other areas. More importantly, there are not many public toilets, not many children’s playfields, and, finally, they’re not very friendly for disabled people to go across and walk through the high street. We need to promote free parking schemes, convenient public transport and park-and-ride schemes, with the aim of making town centres pedestrian and cycle-friendly. Plans should encourage a genuine mix of shops and offices in town centres, as well as housing, to bring people into those areas, particularly at night-time. And we need to look again at business rates, which remain a significant barrier to the growth and success of businesses in Wales.

Deputy Presiding Officer, we saw the film, you heard, ladies and gentlemen, my colleagues here, but one typical example happened in my constituency office. A constituent came to my office—he has been running a shop for the last 14 years on the main road, and he’d just expanded a shop within his shop, where his office was, to remove the office premises and expand a couple of gondolas and make bigger his shopping area. Guess what? The valuation office turn up and they increase his rates. The shop was unexpanded, the area was unexpanded, only the gondolas, the shopping commodities, were increased. Fivefold, from £3,000 to £15,000, the rates were increased for this business. So, what he did was he sold his business. That is one typical example, very recently.

On the High Street in Newport, the rents are normally within the range of £14,000 and rates are, virtually, around about the same figure. How can a new business run a business with that sort of attitude? There are some innovative ideas I think the Minister should consider. Firstly, trading should be totally free for any trade. Secondly, tapered relief based on the first year profit; in the third year, exactly the same—the second-year profit margin. Very innovative ideas that can give a new incentive to new entrepreneurs and new businesses to grow and thrive on our high streets. That is one of the reasons I think our businesses on the high street are so much in decline that, sometimes, it’s a no-go area, especially in the night-time.

As I said, business rate relief provides an opportunity to support enterprise and stimulate economic growth. Abolishing rates for businesses with a rateable value below £12,000 and tapering relief up to £15,000—Deputy Presiding Officer, we’ve been saying this on this side of the Chamber for many years. I think it’s about time the Government listened to us. Our proposal would see 73 per cent of business premises taken out of rates altogether. Presiding Officer, we all want to see a bustling high street, thriving local business and a positive community engagement. Vibrant high streets are the key, lasting—