The pandemic cannot foot all the blame, though; things were definitely not rosy before the pandemic. For over a decade, our high streets have been battered by the perfect storm of recession, rising business rates and increased competition online. We see the results of this with the following: between 2012 and 2020, bank and building society branches reduced by 28.8 per cent, falling from 695 to 495; ATMs have fallen by 18 per cent in the last three years; post offices have fallen 3.9 per cent in the last decade. Since January 2020, 64 retail companies have failed, resulting in 6,882 stores closing, and affecting 133,600 employees in Great Britain. This has resulted in one in every seven shops on high streets in Wales being empty. However, it's far higher, as I said, in areas like Newport. The challenge will be now to attract customers back to retail after a prolonged period of relying on online sales.  

When the Welsh Government introduced restrictions on what retailers could and couldn't sell, this forced more people to rely on online shopping, which has developed over the years to be far more efficient with free, cheap deliveries and returns negating the need to physically go into a shop. It is quite clear to me that Wales needs a strategy to attract a more diverse range of service providers to our towns and cities. We all know that town centres can be vibrant and sustainable, provided that brave decisions are taken and they have ambitious leadership driving development. Sadly, Wales has been devoid of this kind of leadership with Welsh Labour at the helm. We've seen certain local authorities, like Monmouthshire, having to go out on their own to protect town centres, and they've been doing it with one arm tied behind their back from this Welsh Government.

We need to see some radical and some very basic ideas implemented that would revolutionise places such as Newport, such as: providing investment through Business Wales to support small and medium-sized enterprises to get an online presence to compete with larger businesses; where larger units and buildings remain empty, creating shared retail spaces to put an emphasis on creating restaurant quarters that champion the good quality, small independent restaurants; taking tougher action against anti-social behaviour, such as employing more community safety wardens and pressing the police to increase their city centre presence so that people feel safe again in their towns and cities; and slashing business rates so that it frees up the tax burden on retailers, allowing for the potential to expand, reinvest and create more jobs locally. Additionally, it would help reinvigorate town centres, creating stimuli to attract businesses to town centres.

We need to assess and cut car parking charges. For example, Cwmbran is a far more preferred option in my area over Newport city centre, because of the range of businesses and the free parking opportunities. It's not rocket science. There are viable, easy ways to reinvigorate our town centres to make them a force to be reckoned with once again. My own area's city, Newport, used to be a vibrant place; it used to be the place to go, and many would travel far and wide from South Wales East to go there to shop. There is no excuse for it not to be again. Quite simply, we need to make a place so that people want to visit their town and city centres again. We need to make sure that people, instead of getting a train from Cwmbran to Cardiff or Chepstow to Bristol, find reasons to come to places like Newport.

We can't think of our high streets as purely shops anymore. We need to be creative and inventive with the space that we have to offer, creating a shopping experience that is a different to anything that you can get online. Town centres need to be a place where people come to learn, for public services, to live and to share time. They have to have the whole mix, and it needs to keep moving with the times. Moving with the times must also mean that online and offline must merge together. All retailers, no matter how small, should be able to offer a basic e-commerce platform so that customers can shop in whatever way is convenient for them. This would mean that customers can see what's in store before they take a trip to their high street, or they can choose to order directly from the shop. Once again, it begins with being inventive and offering the correct support to local businesses so that they can flourish.   

However, none of this will be possible unless local councils and Welsh Government decide what type of country we want to live in, and intervene to protect the social infrastructure. As industry experts have long warned that rising business rates are part of the reason behind Wales's empty shop units, we need to go back to basics in creating a low-tax, enticing environment for new businesses to flourish and confidently set up shop. Simple initiatives like offering business rate discounts for independents and entrepreneurs, refusing out-of-town planning approval and scrapping parking charges will go a long way in helping our high streets.

To conclude, we need greater support and emphasis put on our town and city centres from this Government, as the 'town centre first' policy used by the Welsh Labour Government has been nothing short of abject failure. No longer can they be allowed to languish and be left behind Cardiff. They need immediate support to stop the drift and slow decline. Some of the ideas that I have highlighted here today would not only set our towns and cities back on the right path, Llywydd, but they would also create an exciting environment for inward investment and well-paying job opportunities. I look forward to hearing from colleagues in this Chamber today on their thoughts and ideas on how we can revitalise our hard-hit town and city centres, as more of the same would just not suffice.