Burnham’s First 100 Days: Why the High Street Has Reason for Hope

By Cllr Ibrahim Dogus

In hospitality, a busy restaurant is only part of the story. What matters is whether the takings cover wages, ingredients, energy and rates, with enough left over to invest in the business. On the other side of the table, customers are making their own calculations about what they can afford.

Running restaurants in Waterloo and representing Waterloo and South Bank as a Labour councillor has taught me to look at both sides of that equation. A thriving high street depends on businesses that can afford to operate and customers who can afford to use them.

One hundred days into Andy Burnham’s premiership, there are encouraging signs that this connection is shaping the government’s approach. The next step must be to give households and small businesses the certainty to plan ahead.

Removing VAT from household electricity bills from 1 October offers some relief as winter approaches. The return of the £2 single bus fare cap in England outside London from January will reduce the cost of everyday journeys. Neither measure will transform household finances on its own, but both respond to costs people cannot easily avoid.

That matters to the high street. When essential bills take more of a household’s income, there is less available for a meal out, a haircut or a purchase from a local shop. Supporting household finances helps sustain the businesses that provide local jobs and keep neighbourhoods active.

The announced 20% business-rates reduction for pubs, social clubs and live music venues in England from April 2027 is also welcome. These venues employ local people, support suppliers and provide places where communities come together. Practical recognition of their contribution is overdue.

As a restaurateur, I want the government to extend that recognition across hospitality. Restaurants and cafés face many of the same pressures, yet fall outside this particular measure. They deserve consideration in the next phase of support.

Through SME4Labour, I have long argued that small businesses need a stronger voice in decisions affecting their future. They need a business-rates system that better reflects the pressures on physical premises, alongside fair taxation of large online businesses and practical support to train staff, improve productivity and invest.

The forthcoming Budget should therefore set out a clear timetable for wider business-rates reform. It should also explain what support households can expect when the current electricity VAT relief ends in March 2027. Temporary help has value, but employers signing leases, recruiting staff or replacing equipment must make commitments that last much longer.

Burnham’s emphasis on devolution offers another opportunity. While the pressures facing a South Bank restaurant and a town-centre shop in Greater Manchester differ in detail, both depend on affordable premises, reliable transport and customers with money to spend. Mayors and local councils need the powers and resources to address local transport, street cleaning, affordable premises and community safety together. The value of “No 10 North” will be measured by whether it helps communities across the country secure investment and resolve the specific barriers holding local high streets back.

Skills policy should be equally practical. Small businesses can give young people their first job and a route into management or ownership. Technical education and apprenticeships will achieve more if smaller employers can participate without being overwhelmed by costs and administration.

A hundred days cannot establish whether an administration will deliver lasting economic change. But it can reveal what a government considers urgent. Burnham’s early focus on everyday costs gives those of us working in our communities reasons for optimism.

The Budget should build on that start with a clear path to wider rates reform and certainty about household support beyond March. For families, success means more room in the weekly budget. For small businesses, it means being able to take on another employee, improve their premises or keep trading through a difficult winter. Those are the practical results by which the high street will judge this government.

Ibrahim Dogus is Chair of SME4Labour, Director of Labour Home, a Lambeth councillor, and former parliamentary candidate for Cities of London & Westminster (2017) and West Bromwich East (2019).