New mayor says there are ‘too many extractive or low-quality businesses on too many of our high streets’

New plans have been announced to transform high streets across Greater Manchester.

Mayor Bev Craig is launching a £20m high streets fund which businesses and community groups can bid into, as a way of making improvements and attracting more visitors to local shops.

It comes as residents and leaders around the region have long warned that Greater Manchester’s high streets are struggling from changing shopping habits.

The mayor said ‘too many high streets’ in Greater Manchester don’t currently have the type of shops and services that local people want.

“My view is that there are too many extractive or low-quality businesses on too many of our high streets,” she said on Monday.

“I think vape shops have become a bit of a symbol for that, how there can be so many on a high street people simply don’t understand.

“I’ve consistently called on government to make sure that they reform the system nationally that gives councils the power to say stop, too many, we don’t currently have that at the moment.

“I hope that the government will listen in the coming days around some of their announcements to do that.

“I think a high street just filled with those kinds of businesses means that people don’t come in, they don’t shop, they don’t spend time, and people want shops that they can go to.

“I would like to see less vape shops, but I would also like to see more local independents supported to thrive, yes you need a mix of national corporations on the high street, but actually how we support locals and indies is a priority for me.”

Funding for the pledge will come from Greater Manchester’s Good Growth Fund.

A new high streets taskforce will also be set up to steer how the funding will be used and set priorities for breathing life back into high streets.

The announcements were made in Middleton town centre, where there are plans for a mayoral development corporation to drive improvements.

People in Middleton said they want to see changes on their high streets.

Michael Joyce, 36, is a mental health nurse from Middleton and said: “They want to start by putting a bank in, and we need more shops, more places to go to.

“The high street connects the whole community really.”

Andrew Lord, 57, is the owner of Lords of Middleton butchers shop, a family-run business which has been in the town since 1893.

His shop was one of those visited by Bev Craig during a tour of the town centre.

Mr Lord said he felt ‘good’ after his conversation with the mayor about the future of Middleton.

“More banks and shops would give it a real boost, and there are all these empty buildings, they need to find a way of taxing landlords who own them to encourage them to get a shop in there,” he said.

Mr Lord said the loss of banks has been an issue in Middleton, adding: “They say they close because no one was visiting them, but here people were queuing out the door to go to the banks.

“The banks save money when it’s all online.”

Jack Howard, 40, landlord at the Britannia Inn, said: “Middleton’s a great town, it’s not really that anti-social, I’ve been here 18 months and there’s very few incidents.

“You get the odd idiot, but it’s a handful of people. Middleton town centre is fantastic, it just needs a lick of paint, and it needs all the old buildings sorting out.

“You go to other town centres and they look beautiful and well kept, and we need to try and do that here.”

Bev Craig said she would work with local leaders in Middleton to help get banking facilities back to the town.

She said: “We’re working with the shopping centre to see a new post office open.

“There was a lot of anxiety around the closure of the post office in the shopping centre, and I think that’s been task one.

“But secondly, through what we’ve been doing with the Middleton cooperatives, is trying to look at different banking solutions, be that the post office banking hub, where we’re making the case that Middleton should at least have one of those, where you can have different banks on different days.

“Working with other financial institutions in and around Greater Manchester, and piloting some work with Manchester Building Society around community banking into community facilities.

“But different towns, depending on the size, depending on the need, need different things.

“The post office has been the priority because local businesses tell me, particularly when they operate in cash, it’s putting their trading at risk, not having somewhere to go to put in their cash and to operate businesses.

“So a matter of priorities, but using Middleton as a testbed as to how we solve some of the problems that we see in other places across Greater Manchester.”

Dylan Williams is a councillor in Rochdale and serves as vice chair of Middleton Township Committee.

He said: “It’s a really exciting time for Middleton, we’ve got the mayoral development corporation which the Prime Minister [Andy Burnham] helped us set up, and I think Bev’s really keen to see it through.

“We’ve got some really positive announcements that we’re expecting for Middleton in the next few weeks that’s going to really enthuse people in the town.”

Mark Robinson, director of economy and place at Rochdale council, added: “We recognise that Middleton has got a really strong community, we want to put more events on, the events we do here are really successful, we’ve got this fantastic public space outside the shopping centre here, so there are opportunities for us to do more.

“We really want to drive the footfall into the centre, improving those active travel public transport connections into the centre, and also we want much more residential, so the future of Middleton, like a lot of centres, will probably be a smaller retail core and introducing more evening night-time leisure uses and developing that housing offer around the town centre as well.”

Robert Downes, regional business manager for the Federation of Small Businesses in Greater Manchester, welcomed Bev Craig’s plan for high streets and said: “Our nation is essentially built around the notion of the ‘village centre’, with everything else emanating outwards. They are the beating hearts of communities and we need to look after them better.

“High streets need to be bright, welcoming and safe, with a healthy mix of shops and services that bring people in, where they will enjoy spending both time and money and keep coming back.

“Dilapidated centres that are poorly maintained and neglected should become a thing of the past, but making that vision a reality will require bold, out-of-the-box decision-making to ensure this new money is spent wisely on projects that can deliver the renaissance our high streets desperately need, and that’s ultimately about increasing footfall – substantially.

“Bringing unloved, long-term empty premises back into use, I hope, will be a key part of this new scheme, and there has to be some work on accessibility too.

“Easy in, easy out – that’s what’s needed. Local councils and other bodies like TfGM and GMP will all need to work in lockstep with the mayor to make this a success.”

France has banned unsolicited telemarketing phone calls, in what a consumer group is hailing as a “small revolution” for the sales industry.

From Tuesday, unsolicited calls are prohibited for businesses in all sectors – but there are some exceptions.

Calls will only be permitted if they relate to a contract a person has already entered into or the company has obtained prior consent to be contacted for marketing.

“It cannot be stressed enough that peace and quiet is a right, and it is time to stop exposing consumers to unwanted solicitations,” consumer advocacy group Que Choisir Ensemble, said in a statement.

“This observation also holds true online and on the street, which are saturated with demands to consume,” group president Marie-Amandine Stévenin added.

She said the group had long been advocating “for an end to the automatic assumption that someone in their home or private life is a potential customer.”

“This is a victory for consumers, the vast majority of whom do not want to receive sales calls,” she said.

But the law change has riled some business groups, and officials in Morocco, where the call centre sector is heavily reliant on the French market.

One government minister estimated the telemarketing restrictions could lead to the loss of up to 50,000 jobs, according to a report in Moroccan newspaper Le Matin.

The head of France’s direct-selling trade association, the Fédération de la Vente Directe (FVD), also criticised the reforms for adding what he said were administrative burdens for businesses.

“You’ll have to obtain written consent from your customer, and you’ll also have to keep proof of that consent,” Frédéric Billon said in comments reported by the New York Times.

According to a 2025 parliamentary report, 97% of people are annoyed by telemarketing calls, with the authors wryly noting it is “one of those rare issues that unites people in France”.

The same report found 72% of French people reported being contacted on their mobile phones at least once a week, while 38% said they were called once a day.

Germany, Austria and Italy are among the European countries that impose significant restrictions on telemarketing calls, often referred to as cold calls.

In the UK, most telemarketing calls are legal provided the recipient has not objected to the call and their number is not on a statutory list of people or businesses who do not want to receive calls.

1.4 million crumpets made every day at Warburton’s site

Baking giant Warburtons has been given the go-ahead to start producing an industrial amount of an essential ingredient at its Billington Road factory, where two-thirds of the UK’s crumpets are produced every day.

The new production capability is just one part of Warburtons’ large investment in its Burnley facilities, the main producer of sandwich thins, wraps, and crumpets for the UK’s largest baker.

This £100m nationwide investment in its manufacturing capacity was reaffirmed by the firm in May, just weeks after a fault on its potato cake line caused a massive fire that ripped through the facility.

It took two days and dozens of firefighters to put out this accidental blaze, which caused serious damage to a portion of the building, but left the important crumpet production area untouched.

1.4 million of these classic British breakfast staples fly out the door of the firm’s Burnley factory every day. That is almost 510 million over the 364 days the factory operates every year.

But a key ingredient in producing the crumpets’ quintessential spongey structure, known as ‘cream yeast’, was previously having to be bought in. This living material feeds on the sugars in the mix and turns it into carbon dioxide, which creates the product’s bubbled texture.

However, after gaining planning permission from Burnley Council for the construction of a new bio-fermentation plant, Warburtons will now be able to produce vast quantities of this liquid yeast on site.

This is important as yeast is a living single cell microorganism, so transporting the ingredient to a factory inevitably causes it to become less effective and requires it to be less specialised for general sale.

But with these new fermentation tanks, Warburtons will be able to pipe its own specialised yeast straight into its manufacturing lines, or to its other factories.

Two 6.8 metre high steel fermentation tanks will form the centre of this new production compound, which is adjacent to the flour silo at the Billington Road site. This area will take over a portion of the car park, resulting in the loss of two spaces.

The new structure will help to boost the output of two new high-speed crumpet production lines at the facility that were announced in April, with Burnley-born yeast soon giving the baked product its distinctive bubbles.

The federal budget deficit is now expected to surpass $2 trillion this fiscal year, which would be one of the largest shortfalls on record as spending growth continues to outpace tax receipts.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Monday released its monthly budget update for July, which showed the federal government ran a nearly $1.8 trillion deficit through the first 10 months of fiscal year 2026, which runs through the end of September.

That figure represents an increase of $169 billion when compared with the same 10-month period in fiscal year 2025. Federal spending increased $308 billion from a year ago, outpacing the $139 billion rise in tax receipts.

CBO also noted it now estimates the budget deficit will rise to $2.1 trillion, up $200 billion from last fiscal year, for the full fiscal year 2026 based on information available through the end of July.

US NATIONAL DEBT SURPASSES SIZE OF THE ECONOMY FOR FIRST TIME SINCE WORLD WAR II

The federal government is on pace to run a $2.1 trillion budget deficit this year as fiscal year 2026 nears its end. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

“CBO expects 2026 outlays to be close to the February baseline amounts. Revenues, by contrast, are anticipated to be about $200 billion below the February projections, mostly because of smaller-than-expected collections of tariff duties – a result of a Supreme Court ruling handed down after CBO’s baseline was released,” the agency wrote.

Increased spending was primarily driven by the cost of servicing the federal government’s more than $39 trillion national debt, as well as rising expenses for the government’s three largest mandatory spending programs – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Costs related to paying interest on the debt were up $117 billion, or 14%, in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2026 compared with the same period a year ago. The rise was attributed to higher long-term interest rates, as well as the larger national debt.

NATIONAL DEBT INTEREST AND ENTITLEMENT SPENDING PUSH FY2026 FEDERAL BUDGET DEFICIT TOWARD $2 TRILLION

Spending on Social Security benefits rose $70 billion, or 5%, from a year ago due to higher average benefits following inflation adjustments and an increase in the number of beneficiaries.

Medicare costs increased $66 billion, or 8%, from a year ago due to increased enrollment and higher payment rates for healthcare services. Medicaid spending was up $45 billion, or 8%, because of rising costs per enrollee.

Tax revenue from both payroll and taxes rose by a combined $202 billion, or 5%, compared with a year ago. Withholdings from workers’ paychecks were up $141 billion, or 5%, amid rising wages and salaries. Tax refunds paid to individuals rose $23 billion, or 7%, due to provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST BUDGET DEFICITS IN US HISTORY?

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was passed by Republicans and signed into law by President Donald Trump last year, which affected notable tax policies. (Tom Brenner For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Corporate income tax collections were down $89 billion, or 23%, due to provisions in the OBBBA that expanded deductions for investments and resulted in fewer tax receipts.

Collections of customs duties including tariffs increased $18 billion, or 13%, compared with the same period a year ago.

Through April, monthly collections were higher than they were a year ago, but net collections have declined sharply since May when the government began paying out tariff refunds under a Supreme Court ruling from February. CBO noted that about $100 billion in tariff refunds have been issued to date.

SOCIAL SECURITY’S MAIN TRUST FUND FACES DEPLETION IN 2032, TRIGGERING BENEFIT CUTS

Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), said in a statement that federal borrowing has grown to an “astounding” level and that a deficit on track to surpass $2 trillion when the economy isn’t in a recession “is not normal.”

“Incredibly, such an enormous level of borrowing barely scratches the surface of our fiscal deterioration,” she explained. “We are about to hit the sobering milestone of $40 trillion in gross national debt, and things are only likely to get worse.”

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“If lawmakers want to correct our fiscal course, they should start by targeting a reasonable fiscal goal, like 3% of GDP deficits, and then create a bipartisan commission to figure out how we should get there. We can no longer afford to put off the difficult decisions – the time to act is now,” MacGuineas added.

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Deal includes sites in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle and Cardiff

Q-Park has taken on 20 former NCP car park sites across the country in a “significant expansion” focused on town and city centres.

NCP, which operated more than 340 car parks across the UK, fell into administration in March. Now Q-Park has taken over the running of 20 former NCP sites on long-term leases after negotiations with their landlord.

The move comes two years after Q-Park acquired Britannia Parking, which it called a “significant milestone” in its growth. Several of the newly-acquired car parks will be run under the Britannia brand.

In a statement, Q-Park said: “With the previous operator of these locations having entered administration, there was a genuine risk that, like a number of other facilities, these car parks could have ceased operating. This acquisition helps secure their long-term future, ensuring that convenient parking remains available for the local community while providing continued support for local businesses, visitors and the wider local economy.”

Q-Park said it also planned to carry out refurbishment work at its new sites, including improving pedestrian routes and potentially adding EV charging equipment.

Adam Bidder, managing director of Q-Park UK, said: “We are delighted to have completed this agreement, which marks a significant expansion of our portfolio of city centre parking facilities across the UK. It allows us to bring the Q-Park brand and service offering to a wider range of towns and cities, including locations where we have not previously operated. We remain committed to investing in our network and will continue to explore further acquisition opportunities as part of our long-term growth strategy.”

The car parks that will operate under the Q-Park brand

Birmingham – Newhall Street

Bristol – Rupert Street and St James Barton

Cardiff – Greyfriars and Westgate Street

Colchester – High Street and Osborne Street

Hemel Hempstead – Hillfield Road

Ipswich – Tacket Street and Tower Ramparts

Manchester – Palace and Sackville Street

Newcastle – John Dobson Street

Nottingham – Stoney Street

Truro – Highcross

The car parks that will operate under the Britannia Parking brand

Birmingham – City Centre

Dundee – Willison Street

Gloucester – Blackfriars

Shrewsbury – Wyle Cop

Wolverhampton – Piper’s Row