Lead Authority: Lewes District Council

Proposal theme: Regeneration and Economic Development: That the Secretary of State takes the power (or gives local authorities the power) to levy non domestic rates on all those car parking spaces -  with a power for the council to allow discounts (perhaps up to 100%) if the supermarket  or other store, sources a stated percentage of goods  for sale locally.

The Lewes district is predominantly a rural area with urban settlements and villages and a distinct coastal community. The Town of Lewes is the administration centre for East Sussex and is a market town that supports the rural hinterland surrounding the town. It contains many historic buildings and has a thriving shopping area that permeates through the town centre. Unusually the majority of the shops are operated by local independent retailers with a significant number selling locally sourced products. The town has a very active community who are equally supportive of their unique local identity and who value highly this assortment of retailers.

The presence of a Tesco Supermarket on the edge of the Town has according to lovcal retailers negatively impacted upon shoppers who previously would have purchased their goods from local high street shops. The impact is further exacerbated because of a perceived unfairness that shoppers going to Tesco can park for free whereas motorists visiting the High Street and parking in the public car parks or on street have to pay to park and there are limited opportunities to do so adding to the frustration felt by many traders.

A similar story emerges in Newhaven, a coastal town that is a regeneration priority area. Newhaven houses a cross channel Ferry Terminal and is an active fishing port. The town centre however is in decline with a high number of vacant shop units. Traders and the local community attribute the blame for this on the impact of out of town Supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s and the fact that visitors to the town centre have to pay to park.

Numerous comments received from the public are calling for improvements to the town centre in Newhaven for the Council to support local businesses and to ensure the area does not fall into complete decline.

The proposal therefore seeks to redress the balance by creating more of a level playing field between Supermarkets and independent retail provision. This includes the specific application of a business rate charge applicable to free supermarket car parking that can be ring fenced and used by the local authority to support traditional town centre shopping facilities. This could for example be used to provide free car parking in town centre locations.
Whilst the Council could choose to offer free town centre parking, this would significantly reduce the Council’s overall income which would in turn lead to increased Council Tax levels and/or loss of other service provision as a consequence. Free Town center parking in part of the district would also be perceived as unfair by other towns who did not have the impact of out of town supermarkets and this could reduce further the Council’s income from parking.

The proposal would affect supermarkets who provide free parking and who are located on the edge or out of town sites.

The proposal would enable districts, boroughs or unitary authorities who provide town centre public car parks to subsidise them from business rates collected from the supermarkets.

It would require government to legislate that National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) should be chargeable on Supermarket car parks in accordance with the valuation made by the appropriate Inland Revenue Valuation Officer for the area and that such NNDR raised should be diverted from the national Pool and instead paid directly to the local authority to be used wholly for the purposes of supporting local town centre shopping.

The proposal would reduce the inequality between town centres and out of town shopping. It would encourage more visitors to town centres and would stimulate the local economy and would increase local economic sustainability by supporting and encouraging local enterprise and employment opportunities and by maintaining diverse and vibrant communities.