Labour's head of treasury explains how to fix Swindon town centre

Labour’s Battle Bus arrived in Swindon as one of the party’s top figures rallied support in the final days of the general election.

A crowd of campaigners which included the Labour Party’s candidates for North and South Swindon, Will Stone and Heidi Alexander, gathered at Greenbridge Retail Park on Monday morning to greet Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones.

Mr Jones gave a short speech to hype up the group before door knocking nearby neighbours and potentially persuade undecided voters.

The man who may be in charge of the Treasury by the end of the week time told the Adver how his party would turn the economy around, fix the struggling town centre, and reverse the trend of councils needing to drastically cut services to avoid bankruptcy.

Mr Jones said: “At the moment, it’s quite expensive – especially for independent, smaller shops – to stay open on the high street so we are going reform the business rates system to make that easier by re-gearing the payments so that out-of-town warehouses are paying a fairer share.

“Antisocial behaviour is an issue on high streets, so we’ve committed to recruiting 13,500 additional police officers across the country to tackle that.

“Councils don’t know what their budget for the next year is going to be until very late, so they’re constantly having to chop and change, which makes it impossible to plan effectively.

“So, we’ll return to giving them a three-year settlement, so they know what they’ve got for a longer period of time and bring stability back to finances in local economies.”

Other plans include “unlocking” private investment by reforming the planning system, providing better access to skills and training for people at school and in work, and appointing a Covid commissioner to recover money misspent by Conservative ministers in contracts awarded during the pandemic.

As for Will and Heidi, Mr Jones added: “Swindon is always totemic at a general election and we’ve got two brilliant candidates who are showing what change Labour can deliver nationally and what great local Labour MPs can do in their community.

“The people of Swindon… will see that difference with Labour MPs and – we hope – a Labour government nationally.”

North Swindon’s Parliamentary candidates include Will Stone (Labour), Justin Tomlinson (Conservative), Flo Clucas (Liberal Democrats), Andy Bentley (Green), Les Willis (Reform UK), Scott Hunter (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition), and Debbie Hicks (independent).

South Swindon’s Parliamentary candidates include Heidi Alexander (Labour), Sir Robert Buckland (Conservative), Matt McCabe (Liberal Democrats), Rod Hebden (Green), Catherine Cosidowski (Reform), and Martin Costello (independent).