Thursday December 24th 2020
Online retail should also pay
Municipalities demand billions for inner cities
Without strong support, the German municipalities will "no longer be recognized after the pandemic," says the managing director of the Association of Towns and Municipalities. Large online retailers should also provide this help by paying into an "inner city fund".
The German Association of Towns and Municipalities is calling for billions to be invested to revitalize inner cities. "If we are not careful, we will no longer recognize our communities after the pandemic," said chief executive Gerd Landsberg to the newspapers of the Funke media group. In many places, further closures and vacancies can be expected. Therefore, the federal and state governments are called upon to support the municipalities.
In a "five-point plan to save the inner cities", the Association of Towns and Municipalities, according to the Funke-Blätter, calls for an increase in federal urban development funding from currently 790 million euros to 1.5 billion euros per year. This must go hand in hand with co-financing by the federal states.
Furthermore, the municipal umbrella association appeals to the federal government to set up a so-called inner city fund in the order of several billion euros. This new fund should be financed by a "new levy to be created for large online retailers," the newspapers quote from the paper. The taxation of packages of online trading to finance an "inner city fund" is already being considered in the CDU / CSU parliamentary group.
The Association of Towns and Municipalities is also calling for shop opening hours to be relaxed. While online trade runs without restrictions, seven days a week and 24 hours a day, "stationary trade in city centers must be guided by the strict requirements of the federal states' store opening laws," according to the five-point plan .
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