MADAM - With the return of MPs to Parliament, and 100 new Conservative MPs taking up seats, including locally Marco Longhi for Dudley North and Melanie Webb for Stourbridge, it’s time to look at priorities ahead.

In Dudley Borough having spent much time on the high streets talking to voters, a clear priority is the health of our high streets. Indeed retail plays perhaps a unique role in our community, as Merry Hill is after Meadowhall in Sheffield and Stratford Westfield in London, one of the largest shopping centres in the UK, and therefore retail and leisure accounts for a disproportionately high number of jobs for our residents.

I would urge our four Conservative MPs to work together to work with Dept for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Dept for Culture and Media and Sport to build upon the legislation introduced by ex-Chancellor Phillip Hammond to introduce a digital tax on online e-commerce. Companies like Amazon operate from warehouses and do not have to carry the cost of physical shops on the high street.

While some temporary retail reliefs have been introduced, the government should also look again at business rates and the high street, and whether permanent reform is required. Business Rates remain a major cost, sometimes equal or higher than rents.

And a more difficult but equally important task is to better rein in sharp practices that have allowed once profitable stores like BHS to be asset stripped and run down, leading to the loss of jobs and major high street investors occupying larger floorspace.

Much has been written and discussed about cuts to public services such as police, education and health. And quite rightly so, as we can all see that these are at breaking point.

But we can also see some of our retailers are struggling, with fewer staff, empty spaces and tired décor. This also impacts on the wellbeing of our residents, who can remember better times on the high street.

We welcome the successful shortlisting of Brierly Hill in the £1bn Future High Streets Fund, and Dudley in the Towns Fund, and the much delayed plans to demolish Cavendish House and redevelop the site.

With our four MPs now members of the governing party, and retail making up a significant share of our local economy, I would urge them to advocate for the sector, particularly around the need to level the playing field with online retailers.

The Liberal Democrats, both locally and nationally, will be watching closely the new Conservative administration, and holding it to account on issues such as promised investment for the Midlands, an end to the housing and homelessness crisis, and proper funding for public services including the NHS, education and policing.

Ian Flynn, Liberal Democrat Campaigner

Dudley, Stourbridge & Halesowen Liberal Democrats