Mira Holt Our high streets do not need another vape shop – they need a reason to visit

CUT the rates, fill the empty units with something useful and people will come back.

Walk through almost any town centre and you can count the shutters. One in seven shops is empty, and the rest seem to sell phone cases.

It does not have to be this way. Towns that have cut rents for independent traders have seen footfall rise within a year.

“Nobody ever fell in love with a town because it had a retail park on the bypass.”

The high street is worth saving. It only needs somebody in the town hall to want to.