alex brummer: ministers have helped strangle our high streets… now they must throw the lifeline that could save them - digital signs for sale

You don't have to venture to discover the tragic state of commercial streets in many cities in Britain. Once-
The prosperous towns and the city center are in tragic decline.
The clues are clear: empty, boarding.
Shop with "sell" or "let" logo, pop-
Second charity store
Handmade products off the shelfat-
With betting shops and currency exchange outlets.
There are many reasons for this destruction.
But it doesn't take genius to acknowledge that the government has become a major contributor through unfair punitive commercial rates.
Ministers shamefully do not understand that the street is not just a shop they run --
They are a community center that provides basic services to people.
And choking at high commercial rates (
It also hit big store groups like Fraser House, toy fight city, BHS and Debenhams)
Poor local infrastructure, excessive parking charges, shops affected.
The most shocking thing is the brutal unfair competition from taxes.
Avoid Internet giants
A popular voice in the debate came from Dave Lewis, chief executive of the UK-dominated grocery store Tesco ).
Although he cleverly managed his own company in today's hostile retail environment, he wrote in an email yesterday urging the government to impose sales tax on internet giants, to fund struggling commercial street stores.
While Tesco is trying to maintain its market share in groceries, household goods, electronics and the like, digital giants in Silicon Valley, California are facing an attack with very low taxes.
They avoid high commercial prices by operating in a cave-like warehouse outsideof-
Urban industrial parks and Brown sites qualify them for low-level prices.
Amazon, for example, paid only £ 63 million in business prices in the UK last year, although reported sales of £ 8 billion.
In fact, this is the real leadership of Dave Lewis.
Some small shopkeepers regard its supermarket chain as an "enemy" because it has a national network of about 3,400 stores that usually lower their prices
To deal with the politicians.
He called for a 2-cent tax on digital retailers to raise at least 1.
5 billion is used to reduce the burden on traditional retailers.
In recent years, some ministers have responded positively to the Post's campaign to save our streets.
Treasury funds have become a lifeline, and thousands of small retailers can also enjoy commercial rate cuts.
In many cases, this measure means the difference between survival and closure.
Yesterday, however, in response to Lewis's call on behalf of conservatives,
Voting shop owner, we have received a naive and irresponsible response from the chief secretary of the Treasury, Liz Teras, and the leaders of the Tory party, full of hope.
As a Thatcher who believes in "lower, simpler taxes," she argues that "a bill of 2 cents for online shoppers will only increase the cost of living ".
For a senior government minister directly in charge of managing public finance, it is disrespectful to be so dismissive of one of the UK's most respected retailers.
It also flies on the face
Maybe deliberately.
Philip Hammond, her boss and finance minister, is trying to make the digital giant more firmly integrated into the tax system.
He is passionate that companies such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook have long been free to ride at the expense of other retail businesses in the UK, and have caused serious losses to taxpayers.
If Truss MS really believes in simpler and lower taxes, she may want to explain to the public how her government leads a retail sector that accounts for 5 of the country's total output, but it paid 25 per cent of the country's commercial interest rate.
For example, Tesco's commercial price has doubled over the past decade to 0. 7 billion.
One reason is that the central government is increasingly responsible.
Social care provided-
On the other hand, local authorities have had to fund these services by raising commercial prices.
Shopping online does bring great benefits.
It allows people to click the mouse to compare prices, buy items at a cheaper price and send them to their home or work address without spending the time and cost of traveling to the city center.
But the biggest danger is that instead of lowering prices and increasing choices, the rise of internet retail giants will eventually kill the streets and give them monopolies so that they can raise prices and reduce choices.
What we have is definitely not a free market, but an internal unfair competition system.
Of course, Tesco's critics would argue that its boss is a bit wealthy in defending British shopkeepers as its market dominance in the 90 s and 2000 s led to the closing of rival stores.
There is some truth in this.
But Tesco has also invested heavily in the city center.
More than 1,700 convenience stores across the country
Help revive many town centres and act as an anchor to attract shoppers back to the high street.
In addition, Tesco, a pioneer in online shopping, did not seek any special offers from the government.
It is estimated that its share of online grocery sales will be the largest payer of Lewis's proposed 2-cent online tax.
As far as she is concerned, Liz Teras's claim that taxes will hit the pockets of the family shows that she is completely misunderstood about the grocery market in the UK. No-
German chains Aldi and Lidl have already robbed 12.
7 of the market-
This means that the motto of Sir Jack Cohen, the founder of Tesco, "pile it up high and sell it cheaper" is more authentic than ever, and the small shops suffer very badly.
As the chief minister of finance, MS Teras should be aware that the current competitive market --with cost-
Cutting from milk pint to items like cabbage and plasma TV
This is one of the reasons why families have benefited from inflation below the Bank of England's 2% target, which is surpassed by household income.
In any case, if a new tax is imposed on digital giants to lower business interest rates, it will not only relieve the pressure on the most difficult people --
But it may also encourage them to lower their prices.
Generally speaking, raising taxes is never the answer to any economic question.
But the crisis on the British streets means that the rules book must be ignored once.
Government ministers must act quickly to implement this imaginative long-overdue proposal to put an end to the tax injustice that has become shameful.
Those chain taxes.
To avoid the fact that billionaire owners of global digital giants must be forced to pay their share of what they deserve and give small business Street stores in the UK --
This is the cornerstone of many local communities.
Opportunity to survive.