Since March, we have seen so many changes to the way we live our lives, but particularly how we go about daily activities such as shopping and spending our leisure and recreational time.

Our high streets have suffered particularly badly, with the pressures that they were already facing being accelerated and exacerbated by the Covid crisis. But there are greater forces at play affecting high streets around the world, due to the move to the convenience of Internet shopping. In response, our high streets will change to being more focused on places where people live and enjoy their leisure time.

Major retail chains – shops and banks particularly – are those greatest affected, with the likely terminal problems that Debenhams are facing being the most high profile, whilst smaller independent niche retailers stand a better chance of surviving in the new environment.

Hadleigh is fortunate in having a good variety of these and is holding up well. A mixture of residential and leisure, supported by some retail, is the way to go for small and medium-sized market town centres, and the recently announced proposals for the Partridges site is an excellent example of this. Babergh's Economic Development team has prepared a vision for the town and we will do all we can to assist this evolution.

Our retail, leisure and hospitality businesses have been given a lot of government support this year: they don't have to pay any business rates in this financial year and those with a rateable value less than £51,000 have received grants to help cover lost income. This is government funding, administered by Babergh. In total, we were allocated £24.5M and I am pleased to say we have been able to distribute all of it.

Business rates do remain a problem and the long hoped for reform has suffered another delay. They are no longer fit for purpose in their present form and the District Councils Network continues to lobby hard for a fairer way of taxing business activity.

I love living close to Hadleigh and being able to support the shops there. The high street is still thriving and we should all recognise that and support those businesses that are going the extra mile to provide what shoppers want. I am particularly pleased, therefore, that three Hadleigh high street businesses – Ferguson's Deli, Andrew's Butchers and Battleburys at the King's Head – have been short-listed in the 2020 Babergh Mid Suffolk Innovation Wards. Along with these, I mustn't forget Challs International Ltd on the Lady Lane industrial estate, who have also been short-listed.

Of course, I can't gloss over the problems. The recent announcement that the TSB is set to close the Hadleigh branch, leaving the town without a bank, is a real problem for some residents and businesses.

Banks are closing everywhere, due to the majority of us now conducting our banking business online. I will try my best to get the TSB to reconsider, or find an alternative solution for Hadleigh.

It's been a long time since, as a small boy in the 1960s, I used to go with my father and brother on our weekly Saturday morning trip from our home in Raydon to Hadleigh to go to the newsagent and Partridges, but Hadleigh is still as great now as it was then, and it will be in the years to come.