A £1 charge on every home parcel delivery could raise £3 billion a year to fund town centre regeneration, a leading vintage fair organiser has said.
The proposal comes from Ribble Valley events company Crafty Vintage, which has written to the Prime Minister Andy Burnham suggesting the levy as a way to support struggling high streets across the UK.
The company, which has organised artisan markets across the North West for nearly 20 years, estimates the charge would generate close to £58 million per week, with retail giant Amazon expected to pay the largest share.
Dan Johnson, who runs Crafty Vintage alongside co-founder Laura E Johnson, said: "For 20 years we have made staying at home cheaper than walking into town, and then acted surprised when the towns emptied.
"Delivery feels free, and it is not free.
"Somebody covers the collapse of the retail base that used to pay for the street.
"Just not the person who ordered."
The company sent the proposal to Number 10 North at Heron House in Manchester and invited the Prime Minister to visit its Whalley artisan market on Sunday, August 30.
The proposed £1 charge would be paid by retailers at the point of sale and listed as a separate line on the customer’s receipt.
Huge firms like Amazon, which operate vast out of town warehouses to ship parcels quickly and cheaply, would be hit hardest by the proposal, though it's likely to be shoppers who pick up the bill.
With an estimated three to 3.5 billion parcels delivered to UK homes each year, the scheme could raise around £3 billion annually, and nearly double that during the busy Christmas period, Mr Johnson believes.
Amazon alone would contribute between £600 million and £750 million each year through the proposed charge, based on its estimated UK turnover of around £30 billion.
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Locally, Crafty Vintage estimates the scheme would raise approximately £68 million a year across Lancashire, £130 million in Greater Manchester, and £2.8 million in Ribble Valley.
The funds would be ringfenced in law and returned to the local authority where the parcel was delivered.
The company proposes 60 per cent of the money be allocated to transport improvements, with the remaining 40 per cent supporting Business Improvement Districts, market infrastructure, and wider town centre renewal.
Exemptions would apply for sellers dispatching fewer than 5,000 parcels per year, as well as for prescriptions, medical supplies, and deliveries to housebound or disabled customers.
He said: "£2.8m a year would transform what a town in Lancashire could do. £600m a year is no threat whatsoever to a business that size.
"It is a contribution to the streets that business has emptied. A butcher in Whalley pays rates on every square foot of a shopfront.
"The parcel that leaves a warehouse on a motorway junction contributes nothing at all to the street it arrives on."
Crafty Vintage also extended an invitation to the Prime Minister to visit the Whalley Monthly Artisan Market, which takes place on the last Sunday of each month behind The Swan in King Street from 11am to 4pm.
Dan said: "There is nothing to open and no ribbon to cut.
"I would like the PM to spend an hour talking to the people trading, because the argument makes far more sense standing in front of them than it does on paper."
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