St Neots and Mid Cambs Election candidates on high streets

Kathryn Fisher (Green Party)

Kathryn Fisher is the Green Party candidate for St Neots and Mid Cambs. (Image: Kathryn Fisher)

High Streets are the heart of our communities, they should be lively places to enjoy food, shopping and cultural events like live music and theatre.

Sadly, due to the last 14 years of austerity under the Conservative rule, high streets have suffered enormously with many people having to shut long lasting family businesses, leaving many high streets barren and empty.

The cost-of-living crisis means that people have less expendable income to spend on things they enjoy which means businesses can’t afford to stay open.

The Green Party hopes to change this by raising the national minimum wage to £15 an hour so people can afford to spend again.

These costs to small businesses will also be offset by increasing the Employment Allowance to £10,000. Moreover, we believe in the power of the arts to enrich lives and stimulate local economies.

This is why we will push to cut VAT on all hospitality and arts businesses so that they can become a permanent feature of our high streets.

We will also help businesses to transition to a more sustainable future by providing local authorities with £2 billion a year to offer as grants to help them decarbonise."

Stephen Ferguson (Independent)

Stephen Ferguson is the Independent candidate for St Neots and Mid Cambs. (Image: Stephen Ferguson)

"2023 and 2024 have been tough for High Street businesses due to the combined impact of energy and cost-of-living crises, which have increased costs and reduced consumer spending.

Additionally, the retreat of banks from most high streets has left numerous premises vacant.

However, it’s not all bleak. In St Neots, small independent businesses in areas like Church Walk and Cross Keys Mews are experiencing a renaissance, transforming once neglected parts of the town into thriving hubs.

These businesses offer unique experiences that online stores and out-of-town retail parks cannot match.

We should celebrate and attract more of these businesses instead of focusing on empty properties. 

We also need to apply these lessons to new, rapidly growing communities like Northstowe and Cambourne, which currently lack adequate shopping facilities.

The Conservatives failed to fulfil their 2019 promise to review business rates. The new Government must prioritise setting fairer business rates and protecting small businesses from energy price volatility.

Additionally, we need to reduce corporate landlords' control over town centre rents. I welcome the introduction of High Street Rental Auctions to bring persistently empty properties back into use."

Bev White (Party of Woman Candidate)

Bev White is the Party of Women candidate for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire. (Image: Bev White)

"I put a call out to female friends for ideas of how to revitalise St Neots High Street.

Accessibility and parking are a priority for many people. A disabled friend needs to use a car and hoist, she finds shopping a minefield and for any town experience to be pleasurable she needs parking close to the shops, with accessible toilet facilities nearby.

If each element isn’t linked, shopping becomes frustrating and less enjoyable. She goes elsewhere.

Are shop rental and business rates reasonably and competitively priced, or does the price fluctuate according to the size of the trader? If so, why and what can be done to encourage independent retailers?

Barber shops are flourishing, yet hairdressing salons are disappearing, the hairdressers are going mobile. Is this change due to economic or social factors?

Given St Neots cannot attract larger retail stores, are we big enough to attract ‘names’ for pop-up shop events? Could themed pop-up events work – arts & craft, world foods, clothing, cars and motorbikes, tattoos and piercing?

What do the population want that would make them think ‘I’ll try and get that in or I’ll go to St Neots’ first?

Ian Sollom (Lib Dem)

Ian Sollom is the Lib Dem candidate for the St Neots and Mid Cambs constituency. (Image: Ian Sollom)

"Our high streets, from large towns like St Neots to villages with just a couple of shops, make such a massive contribution to community spirit.

As we saw in the Covid pandemic, it was the small independent shops serving a community that stepped up so fantastically when the most vulnerable needed help.

"We must ensure the resilience that local businesses create is valued and encouraged.

But the upheaval caused by the pandemic and the ballooning of utility costs have put enormous pressure on the viability of many small businesses. There is an urgent need to address these challenges and allow businesses to see a sustainable long-term future for themselves.

At present, the Conservative Government is failing businesses and their customers. Growth is minimal, so spending is down. Constant u-turns damage business confidence. Unfair taxes curtail the ambitions of business owners.

As MP, one of my priorities will be to press for the abolition of business rates. They can be replaced with a Commercial Landowner Levy which moves the cost away from business owners who work so hard.

I will work with town and parish councils to get the investment needed to ensure that town centres are attractive places to come to."

Marianna Masters (Labour)

Marianna Masters is the Labour candidate for St Neots and Mid Cambs. (Image: Newsquest)

"I have spoken to many people across the communities of St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire who raised concerns about their local high streets in their villages and towns.

Labour has plans to make our high streets look better and feel safer, bringing money into the local economy and encouraging people to work, shop, eat and drink, locally.

We will recruit more neighbourhood police and PCSOs to be visible in communities and scrap the £200 threshold on shoplifting investigations, to discourage anti-social and criminal behaviour.

The new ‘right to buy’ for community assets should end the blight of empty premises and boarded up shops.

In St Neots, for example, this would support the rejuvenation of the Market Square as a destination when it’s completed.

Rolling out face-to-face community banking hubs will ensure that people can access vital banking services that have been lost as the number of branches have declined and in some places disappeared completely from villages across the constituency.

Alongside this, Labour will support independent shops by levelling the playing field with online giants with a new property taxation system replacing business rates.

This could transform Northstowe and Cambourne, for example, where residents deserve local shops and services to establish thriving high streets within their growing communities."

We contacted all the St Neots and Mid Cambs candidates: Anthony Browne (Conservative) Guy Lachlan (Reform UK) did not respond.