A NEW ‘shop out to help out’ scheme of up to £10 off would help boost the struggling high street as they get back on their feet, experts say today.
Campaigners are calling for a fresh scheme to entice shoppers back and to help independent firms recover from the pandemic.
This morning retail expert Mary Portas, who previously was an adviser to David Cameron on high streets, revealed how there have been 14,000 retail businesses shut down in the last nine months alone.
And such a new scheme – like the Eat Out to Help Out programme last summer for hospitality – would be a real boost to shops which have been shut for months on end – she said.
They want to see a scheme for retailers with fewer that 10 employees that sell through physical stores.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Let’s get some stimulation packages going in the way of Eat Out to Help Out – and an incentive for independent retailers, looking at the Government covering 50 per cent of the costs of what the public buys, capped again at the ten pounds.
“Why not?”
The campaigners have suggested customers would need to be limited to using it once per transaction.
Save The Streets estimates the proposals would cost the taxpayer roughly the same amount too – government figures show that 50,000 food outlets claimed £849million last August.
But the Treasury has repeatedly snubbed calls for such a scheme – and it’s understood they are not currently considering it.
