{"id":44494,"date":"2026-07-30T07:38:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham"},"modified":"2026-07-30T08:41:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T07:41:00","slug":"high-street-recovering-burnham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham","title":{"rendered":"The high street isn’t dying, or thriving. Does Burnham’s rates cut change that?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham has been Prime Minister for ten days.<\/p>\n

In that time, he’s capped bus fares, cut VAT on electricity bills, and slashed business rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues. If you’d asked anyone what a former metro mayor’s first fortnight in Downing Street would look like, this is roughly what they’d have sketched out on a napkin.<\/p>\n

It’s not hard to see why. Burnham spent nine years as Mayor of Greater Manchester being photographed in bus shelters and beer gardens<\/a>, and he seems to have brought the habit with him.<\/p>\n

The question is whether any of this actually fixes the high street, or whether it’s solving a problem that was already solving itself.<\/p>\n

The industry’s early response has been warmer than the usual reflexive scepticism a new government gets.<\/p>\n

Lyle Bignon, the Night Time Economy Ambassador for Birmingham, called the rates cut the product of “months of collaborative working” between the sector and Number 10, and pointed to West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker<\/a>‘s call for a dedicated national Night Time Economy minister as proof that “we are now seeing signs of confidence in our role as economic driver from our political leaders.”<\/p>\n

Bignon did add that “further interventions are required,” which is diplomatic-speak for nice start, now do the rest.<\/p>\n

And the rest is, so far, quite small. The pub and live venue rates cut will cost the Treasury around \u00a3100m a year, funded by squeezing reliefs for what the government has decided are “anti-social” businesses, vape shops chief among them.<\/p>\n

It only covers hospitality and live music, not the wider retail sector that has spent years asking for exactly this kind of relief and watching it go to someone else’s sector instead.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chancellor John Healey has been upfront that it’s “just one step,” with the real reform, changes to small business rates relief, promised for the Autumn Budget. Tax firm Ryan reckons Burnham’s stated plans, if delivered in full, would cost around \u00a3880m a year and take 140,000 small business premises out of the rates system entirely.<\/p>\n

That’s a genuinely big number. It’s also, right now, just a number someone at a tax firm modelled off the back of a speech.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to the actual question: is any of this fixing anything?<\/p>\n

Start with footfall, because on paper it looks grim. BRC (British Retail Consortium) -Sensormatic data for April showed UK footfall down 10.7% year-on-year, with the high street down 9.2%.<\/p>\n

Strip out the Easter effect and it’s still down 3.3% over March and April combined. BRC chief Helen Dickinson pinned most of the blame on the Middle East conflict denting consumer confidence, not on anything happening in Whitehall.<\/p>\n

Then look at insolvencies, and the story flips. There were 852 retail insolvencies in England and Wales in the first half of 2026, down from 1,006 over the same period last year, a fall of more than 15%. The Insolvency Service’s own verdict is blunt: the sector’s 2022-23 failure wave “has passed its peak.”<\/p>\n

Retail insolvencies are still about 50% above 2019 levels, so nobody’s popping champagne, but the worst of it was already behind us before Burnham had unpacked his boxes<\/a> in Downing Street.<\/p>\n

Vacancy rates split the difference, and they blow up the idea that there’s one high street story to tell at all. The national average sits around 13% to 13.5%, edging down slightly year-on-year. But average is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Centre for Cities found fewer than 1 in 10 shops empty in London, Brighton and York, versus roughly 1 in 5 in Newport and Bradford.<\/p>\n

Using millions of card transactions, they found vacancy tracks two things: how many people live within walking distance of a high street, and how many well-paid “tradable” jobs, finance, tech, manufacturing, the creative industries, exist in the wider city economy.<\/p>\n

Get housing density and good local jobs right, and your high street tends to look after itself. Rates relief doesn’t get a mention.<\/p>\n

None of which makes Burnham’s approach wrong. \u00a3100m for pubs and music venues is a real, if modest, help for a sector that’s genuinely had it rough, and the Ryan modelling suggests something bigger is coming.<\/p>\n

But the government has picked a metric, rates relief, to be judged on, and the best available evidence says it isn’t the thing actually deciding whether a high street sinks or swims.<\/p>\n

Bignon’s cautious welcome and the BRC’s continued lobbying both suggest an industry happy to keep the conversation going while someone in Downing Street is finally listening.<\/p>\n

Whether Britain’s high streets look any different by the next election will probably come down to housing and jobs policy that nobody’s currently filing under “high street” at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham has moved fast on the high street in his first fortnight as PM, but the data tells a more complicated story about what’s actually driving the recovery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":284306,"featured_media":44498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137137,53262,120782,127686,47995],"coauthors":[137138],"class_list":["post-44494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-business-news","category-economy","category-hospitality","category-retail","tag-featured-story","tag-national"],"yoast_head":"\nThe high street isn't dying, or thriving. Does Burnham's rates cut change that? - South West<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The high street isn't dying, or thriving. Does Burnham's rates cut change that? - South West\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Andy Burnham has moved fast on the high street in his first fortnight as PM, but the data tells a more complicated story about what's actually driving the recovery\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South West\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-30T06:38:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-30T07:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/2026\/07\/imrs_1800x1200.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Georgia Wright\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Georgia Wright\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham\",\"name\":\"The high street isn't dying, or thriving. Does Burnham's rates cut change that? - South West\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/2026\/07\/imrs_1800x1200.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-30T06:38:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-30T07:41:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#\/schema\/person\/71720cf99270170d60803ee858e189b9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/2026\/07\/imrs_1800x1200.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/2026\/07\/imrs_1800x1200.jpg\",\"width\":1800,\"height\":1200},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The high street isn’t dying, or thriving. Does Burnham’s rates cut change that?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/\",\"name\":\"South West\",\"description\":\"Regional business news for South West\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#\/schema\/person\/71720cf99270170d60803ee858e189b9\",\"name\":\"Georgia Wright\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/aae2f4c92c69e014020fc7ac83f2b339\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8e656f9a744904f61cbf2914d05dc00d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8e656f9a744904f61cbf2914d05dc00d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Georgia Wright\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/author\/georgiawright\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The high street isn't dying, or thriving. Does Burnham's rates cut change that? - South West","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"The high street isn't dying, or thriving. Does Burnham's rates cut change that? - South West","og_description":"Andy Burnham has moved fast on the high street in his first fortnight as PM, but the data tells a more complicated story about what's actually driving the recovery","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham","og_site_name":"South West","article_published_time":"2026-07-30T06:38:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-07-30T07:41:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1800,"height":1200,"url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/2026\/07\/imrs_1800x1200.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Georgia Wright","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Georgia Wright","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham","url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham","name":"The high street isn't dying, or thriving. Does Burnham's rates cut change that? - South West","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/2026\/07\/imrs_1800x1200.jpg","datePublished":"2026-07-30T06:38:22+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-30T07:41:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#\/schema\/person\/71720cf99270170d60803ee858e189b9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/2026\/07\/imrs_1800x1200.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/_files\/images\/2026\/07\/imrs_1800x1200.jpg","width":1800,"height":1200},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/44494-high-street-recovering-burnham#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The high street isn’t dying, or thriving. Does Burnham’s rates cut change that?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/","name":"South West","description":"Regional business news for South West","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#\/schema\/person\/71720cf99270170d60803ee858e189b9","name":"Georgia Wright","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/aae2f4c92c69e014020fc7ac83f2b339","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8e656f9a744904f61cbf2914d05dc00d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8e656f9a744904f61cbf2914d05dc00d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Georgia Wright"},"url":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/author\/georgiawright"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/284306"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44494"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44501,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44494\/revisions\/44501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44494"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=44494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}