The Charity Retail Association (CRA) has developed a five-step strategy to tackle the Welsh high street’s decline without harming charities following an emergency summit held yesterday.

The CRA is to send the document to members of the Welsh Assembly, and says it addresses anxiety over the deterioration of Welsh high streets in a way that does not "punish and penalise" charities.

In April the CRA announced it was holding the summit as a reaction to Professor Brian Morgan’s government-commissioned review of business rates in Wales, which included a recommendation to drop rate relief for charity shops.

And yesterday in Senedd, Cardiff Bay, representatives of 19 charities and three opposition Welsh Assembly members attended the emergency meeting to discuss the proposals, an event which Wendy Mitchell, the CRA’s head of policy and public affairs, described as a success.

Minister declined invitation

“We had a lot of support from the assembly members who were there,” Mitchell told civilsociety.co.uk. “We had each of the three opposition business spokespeople there: Eluned Parrott, Alum Ffred Jones and Nick Ramsey and they were all quite supportive of the charities in the room. We had a really good turn out: 40 or 50 people, including senior directors of national chains, as well as chief executives of retail in Welsh charities.

“We were, however, disappointed that the minister [Edwina Hart] declined our invitation to the summit so we could speak with her directly."

Hart had launched the consultation on the issue back in April. Proposals included limiting rate relief for charity shops according to the rateable value of the premises; cutting the rate relief for all charity shops from 80 per cent to 50 per cent from 2022; and restricting charity shop numbers.

The CRA stresses that if even just one of the proposals was accepted, it would cost charities nearly £2m from next year (a cut of 15 per cent), and sever 130 paid jobs, 1,800 volunteer post and one in seven charity shops.

Professor Morgan’s review claimed, among other things, that charity shops are creating “market distortion” on Welsh high streets and enjoy an unfair advantage over other types of businesses.

The five-point plan

The CRA’s five-point plan is as follows:

1. Take a ‘people and place approach’, by setting up a working group to explore how local communities can be empowered to have greater control in shaping their high streets.

2. Strengthen business improvement districts to ensure that charity retailers are incentivised to be involved.

3. Enforce the current law around claiming rate relief to prevent the inappropriate occupation of premises.

4. Monitor the average level of new goods being sold by charity shops.

5. Build an evidence base and share best practice about the role and impact of charity shops on the high street to inform future policy making.

Want access to all civilsociety.co.uk content? Subscribers gain access to all expert advice, analysis, surveys, special reports and the full archive of content from as little as £43.20 per year. Find out more...