Online sales tax considered in bid to save the high street

The other option is ensure tax is paid fairly, mostly from all the companies/people who avoid it - Bezos, Branson, Dyson etc. I'd be happy to pay more tax if I knew everyone was in the same situation. I'm less inclined when someone earning £200k+ can pay someone £20k/year to save themseslves £50k or whatever the numbers are.

I'd rather the highstreet be killed off and the property used for housing. The businesses can just operate out of warehouses out the way with good transport links for deliveries. Unless you live/work in the city centre already the highstreet is just inconvenience.

I think once everyone starts working from home more city centres will become less of a thing so they'll lose their value and become more affordable areas to live and so living costs just evens out which can't bad a bad thing - unless you own the property anyway.
 
The worlds changed, especially during lockdown. The high street was dying anyway. I've realised that I can get pretty much everything I need or want with a few clicks of a mouse and very little effort.
A few % tax on my purchases is not going to be enough to change that.
 
Rroff said:
Or just better parking with a decent thoroughfare to the high street - so many places it is awkward parking (with a mismatch of unpredictable free and pay mechanisms) and a poorly thought out route to and through the high street, etc. (obviously sometimes there are actual reasons for that like historic buildings or the geography).
Click to expand...

Yup.
Local councils: Our high Street is dying!
Also local councils: Double yellow lines, car park is £1.10 for a minimum stay of 1 hour (and this machine does not give change) and pedestrians only.

I mean, I understand, traffic needs to be managed, but its no surprise that high streets lose out to retail parks and online shopping when just you can't just "pop to the high Street" quickly.

That said, if actual brick and mortar shops become a thing of the past, what happens to town centres? The larger towns near me already have high streets consisting of nothing but estate agents, charity shops, bookies and pubs.
 
I'd be fine with this, especially the delivery aspect. Generally speaking having stuff delivered feels far too cheap.
Not because of a desire to save the high street but just to get more tax revenue.
 
Doesn’t seem fair on disabled, elderly and housebound people. They can’t go to the high street, so why should they pay more than those who can?
 
robfosters said:
Doesn’t seem fair on disabled, elderly and housebound people. They can’t go to the high street, so why should they pay more than those who can?
Click to expand...

Pretty sure that being disabled or elderly doesn't prevent you from going shopping. Being housebound with a genuine reason, fair enough. But being elderly or disabled. Nah.
 
Malevolence said:
Pretty sure that being disabled or elderly doesn't prevent you from going shopping. Being housebound with a genuine reason, fair enough. But being elderly or disabled. Nah.
Click to expand...
Well many disabled people are housebound.

People on higher rate mobility allowance should definitely be exempt.
 
We can't lose this many jobs this quickly.
I agree with a tax on online shopping.

Its obviously going to die. But the virus has sped it up to a point where we can't cope.
 
I would only go to the high street if absolutely necessary pre covid, you couldn't force me to go now so I'll happily pay the 2% to avoid it.

People have been saying for years now that the high street model needs to change or it will die. Online makes much more sense for most shopping as you have greater choice and its cheaper so if the high street wants to survive it needs to offer something you can't get online. Before covid this was generally accepted as the high street / town centre becoming more of an experience rather than a shopping destination. As in its somewhere you'd want to go to visit and it happens to have some shops rather than the sole purpose being to shop. This can be done by mixing in independent retailers, restaurants, theatres, cinemas, outdoor table service bars, housing etc.

I'm more likely to buy something if I happen to be in town having a coffee and spot something in a shop window rather than purposefully going to a high street just to buy something I know I can get delivered next day for less money and no hassle.
 
What do we do with the excess population if the high street died in 5 years?

That's a horrendous amount of job losses.
 
Minstadave said:
Why do we need to save the high street? If people are happy buying online let the high street die.

I can't remember the last time I went high street shopping, its just not a pleasant experience. Traffic, expensive parking, no idea if anything you want will be available, general riff-raff everywhere - no thanks.

Online makes sense to me, it's cheaper, more reliable, nore flexible and I'm sure the multidrop delivery system is probably more ecologically friendly too.
Click to expand...

+1

Instead of having 10,000 cars driving to a shopping centre you have 50 vans. Definetely better for the environment.

Let the high street die. Convert the shops into housing and you effectively open a window by letting a door close that was always going to close.

Shops that are actually required will always survive.

What I don't like though is monopolies. Amazon and the supermarkets are too powerful. They need to bring in competition laws where if a single company holds more than x% of a market it should be forced to break up. Would need to be a different percentage for different markets and a fluid amount subject to change regulated and governed properly by independent trustworthy individuals.
 
Can't believe not so long ago everyone was saying that Amazon, Google etc. should pay more taxes in the country that do business in. The Govt made a 2% online transaction tax in the last budget and now it's all we should not make them pay. What a load of absolute hypocrisy. They need to pay tax.
 
413x said:
What do we do with the excess population if the high street died in 5 years?

That's a horrendous amount of job losses.
Click to expand...

Some places will survive other opportunities will appear.

What did people do when mining, ship building, etc stopped?

The real issue is that minimum wage has killed the free market. You cannot compete with Asia or Africa or South America, etc.

Otherwise you could start making clothing, electronics, basically anything in this country if you removed minimum wage which would then create jobs.

All our phones, tvs, everything is made abroad. We have done this to ourselves by introducing barriers to entry. Remove the barriers and let the market set prices without manipulation.

Shops could possibly survive then and house prices would stabilise.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
Some places will survive other opportunities will appear.

What did people do when mining, ship building, etc stopped?

The real issue is that minimum wage has killed the free market. You cannot compete with Asia or Africa or South America, etc.

Otherwise you could start making clothing, electronics, basically anything in this country if you removed minimum wage which would then create jobs.

All our phones, tvs, everything is made abroad. We have done this to ourselves by introducing barriers to entry. Remove the barriers and let the market set prices without manipulation.
Click to expand...
Exactly, it won’t be the first sector to suffer multiple job losses through death of the industry
 
Hagar said:
Can't believe not so long ago everyone was saying that Amazon, Google etc. should pay more taxes in the country that do business in. The Govt made a 2% online transaction tax in the last budget and now it's all we should not make them pay. What a load of absolute hypocrisy. They need to pay tax.
Click to expand...

They do pay tax. But what you are saying is add further tax to an industry that is more successful than another.

So should we tax asda more than Holland and barret too?
 
Psycho Sonny said:
Some places will survive other opportunities will appear.

What did people do when mining, ship building, etc stopped?

The real issue is that minimum wage has killed the free market. You cannot compete with Asia or Africa or South America, etc.

Otherwise you could start making clothing, electronics, basically anything in this country if you removed minimum wage which would then create jobs.

All our phones, tvs, everything is made abroad. We have done this to ourselves by introducing barriers to entry. Remove the barriers and let the market set prices without manipulation.
Click to expand...

What is the point in creating jobs if they are so poorly paid that the workers would be in poverty, you can barely survive on the minimum wage now what is reducing it going to achieve? Manufacturing will only come to back to the West when automation works out cheaper than foreign labour, until then only luxury goods will be made here.
 
Puzzled said:
What is the point in creating jobs if they are so poorly paid that the workers would be in poverty, you can barely survive on the minimum wage now what is reducing it going to achieve? Manufacturing will only come to back to the West when automation works out cheaper than foreign labour, until then only luxury goods will be made here.
Click to expand...

So you reckon being unemployed is better than being poorly paid?

By having a minimum wage all it does is make inflation rise quicker. As when it rises so does the cost of everything else.

Reduce minimum wage and prices could fall meaning less money goes further.

Or you could just leave people sitting at home on the dole as nobody can afford to hire them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom