West Midlands MP on reimagining the high street and campaign to stop buildings going to 'rack and ruin'

Leigh Ingham, the MP for Stafford, has said ‘we need to reimagine what a high street can be’ as she shared her desire for locally accessible youth, employment and health services, alongside… shops and restaurants.

Speaking from the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, the MP emphasised the importance of thriving high streets to communities like Stafford, saying, “they’re the embodiment of how people feel about where they live”.

Ingham said: “It's the thing that people speak of firstly when they talk about where they live, the area, what it's like, so if we don't get that right, then people don't feel their area is great at all.”

She said both Stafford and Eccleshall high streets in the constituency “hold a special place in people's hearts” and commented on how supporting independent businesses is key to the success of high streets.

The MP said: “I think the times have changed quite a lot and high streets now are going to be different to what high streets were maybe 30, 40 years ago. The thing that's important is making them great.

“Not only do we need more shops, more restaurants, businesses there, we also want to see services located there.”

Ingham explained how a town centre is often one of the easiest accessible areas in a community and that she’d like to see more youth, employment and health services there so “people can walk in, get what they need and go on with their day”.

The MP said: “I think we need to reimagine what a high street can be where it's that mix of businesses, of shops, of things to do, but also where you need to go and find out about your benefits or need to go and find out about healthcare, you can do it there.”

Ingham has proposed a Bill in Parliament - No Reward for Neglect - to remove barriers councils face when trying to take action to improve high streets and neighbourhoods.

Explaining the campaign, she said: “No Reward for Neglect is a campaign that's about often overseas landlords or people who don't have an interest in our community and our high streets and they've got buildings that they're allowing to go into disrepair.

“And where local authorities do want to intervene and purchase those buildings, they can't because not only is it a complex legal process, as it should be, but also it's really expensive because they have to pay the landlord’s legal fees. And where landlords can push that process on for as long as possible, you just don't get the same response from landlords.

“So what we want to see is government stepping in and saying, where there are cases of deliberate neglect and people letting buildings going to rack and ruin, they're not eligible to have their professional legal fees paid.”

The MP added: “There's a really interesting fact that if you spend more money in local independents, you will have a more thriving high street.

“We've all got a responsibility to look at where we're spending our money and try and choose and support independents where we can because it's them that are keeping the high street going.”