CRA chief writes to Miliband over charity shop concerns

22 Apr 2013 News

Charity Retail Association CEO Warren Alexander has written to Labour leader Ed Miliband seeking reassurance that the party’s new proposals to give local communities more control over their high streets will not unintentionally harm charity shops.

Charity Retail Association CEO Warren Alexander has written to Labour leader Ed Miliband seeking reassurance that the party’s new proposals to give local communities more control over their high streets will not unintentionally harm charity shops.

In Labour’s policy commission document, Helping our High Streets: Empowering Local Communities, Labour proposes a new ‘umbrella’ use class for certain types of businesses that would help councils to control their over-concentration on high streets.

Specifically referred to are controversial operations such as payday loan companies, betting shops and fast-food outlets, which the document describes as having created ‘clusters’ on high streets in recent years.

And though the document does not mention charity shops specifically, Alexander is concerned that the new use class would see charity shops placed under the same banner, as has sometimes been the case.

Alexander writes: “We support the aspiration in Ed Miliband’s speech [given when he launched Labour’s local election campaign earlier this month] to create more retail diversity on our high streets, but we are concerned to ensure that local decisions would not be arbitrarily taken which will damage charitable fundraising.

“Charity shops are the original social enterprises on the high street: raising significant funding for a huge range of good causes, reducing the UK’s carbon emissions by reusing and recycling, and providing jobs and volunteering opportunities. They occupy premises which would in many cases otherwise be empty.

“We hope to work with the policy review team to put forward our concerns, understand better how these proposals could affect charity shops, and contribute to the development of policies which will improve and regenerate our high streets.”

Alexander's full letter is available on the CRA's website here, while Labour's full policy document can be read here.