What will it take to turn Britain back into a nation of shopkeepers? writes Simon Marks

His opening gambit is to crack down on what he describes as "dodgy businesses".

That means vape shops. It means those curious American sweet shops. It may even mean high streets with a proliferation of foreign-run barber shops.

The Government says it wants to give local people and councils more control over what opens on their high streets.

That sounds sensible enough.

But it raises an obvious question: who decides whether a business is "good" for a community?

One neighbourhood might welcome a wine bar. Another might prefer an off-licence. You may think your local Chinese takeaway is exactly the sort of independent business that gives a high street its character. Someone else, perhaps even your local council, may disagree.

And even if ministers succeed in closing the businesses they don't want, what comes next? Because removing businesses is not the same thing as reviving a high street.

My own local parade illustrates the problem perfectly.

It's close to my heart because my father ran a delicatessen there. I grew up slicing cheese, grinding coffee and, without question, carrying out the worst job in the shop: opening tins of ox tongue.

In the last month alone, that parade has lost its only two independent bakeries. One had been serving the community since 1952.

There isn't a single bakery left.

When I was growing up, there were three greengrocers. They've all gone. We had two fishmongers. They're long gone as well.

The reasons are hardly mysterious. Commercial rents have become eye-watering. Footfall has fallen. Business rates remain punishing. Employer National Insurance contributions have increased. Even this summer's heat has kept shoppers away.

I will sorely miss the bread and butter pudding from one of those bakeries, but the economics simply don't work.

Who can afford nearly £30,000 a year in rent before they've switched on an oven, baked a loaf of bread or a Cornish pasty, paid their suppliers, covered business rates or employed a single member of staff? That is the question ministers need to answer.

By all means close businesses that are breaking the rules. If rogue operators are exploiting the system, deal with them. Although not my barber, please. He does an excellent job.

But let's not pretend that shutting vape shops is, in itself, a strategy for restoring Britain's high streets. The real challenge is making it possible for genuine businesses to replace them.

How do you make it viable for an independent baker to open again? Or a greengrocer? Or a fishmonger? Or a family-run deli like the one my father built his livelihood around?

Those are the businesses that create thriving high streets. Those are the businesses that give communities somewhere to meet, somewhere to linger and somewhere worth returning to.

This son of a shopkeeper wants to know what it will take to make Britain a nation of shopkeepers once again.

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Simon Marks is a presenter and the America correspondent for LBC.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

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