The Green Party has announced a new policy platform aimed at reviving high streets, including using local authority powers to bring empty shops back into public use.
Speaking in Levenshulme today, party leader Zach Polanski and newly elected MP for Gorton and Denton, Hannah Spencer, made the announcement ahead of the May local elections.
The party is calling for affordable leases for local businesses on every high street, aiming to end the dominance of multinational chains and help independent traders flourish.
The Greens also want compulsory purchase powers used to bring long-term empty shops back into public use, alongside giving residents a genuine say in shaping their local high streets and ensuring money spent locally stays in the community.
‘Green Party Councillors would put the interests of the local community first – above a corporation’s private property rights and will use the powers local authorities have over empty and derelict properties and get our High Streets thriving again,’ Polanski said.
‘Too many of our high streets are either boarded up or full of huge companies that suck money out of our local economies and pay profits to big bosses and private shareholders,’ Spencer added.
‘Entire streets have been hollowed out, and so many places are a bad mix of boarded-up shop fronts, bookies or vape shops. This does nothing to improve the well-being of people in our communities, and it drains our local economies.’
