Question 12556 — commerce and crafts

Summary

Ms. Hélène Laporte draws the attention of the Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises, Commerce, Crafts, Tourism and Purchasing Power to the alarming situation of local commerce and the continued increase in commercial failures in city centers. According to recent data relayed by the press, the year 2025 was marked by a worsening of the difficulties of the retail trade, with more than 68,000 failures of businesses over one year, including 13,600 in commerce and automobile repair and more than 9,000 in accommodation and catering. Commercial vacancy now reaches almost 11% in city centers, with peaks above 13% in some large cities and more than 16% in shopping centers. This situation seriously weakens the economic and social balance of many territories, particularly in cities. medium-sized, where local commerce constitutes an essential factor of vitality, attractiveness and social ties. Professionals are warning in particular about the structural drop in turnover, competition from online commerce, the loss of attractiveness of sales, but also about the excessive level of commercial rents, which have become incompatible with the financial capacity of independent traders. Several local elected officials underline elsewhere that some owners prefer to maintain vacant premises rather than agree to a reduction in rents. Although tools exist, such as the tax on commercial wastelands, they remain little used due to their complexity, with fewer than 500 municipalities using them to date. The report submitted last November to the Minister responsible for trade on the future of local commerce also highlights the need to strengthen local revitalization strategies, better regulate rents and perpetuate territorial coordination functions, such as business managers. In this context, she asks what concrete measures the Government intends to take to curb the increase in failures of local businesses; fight against commercial vacancies in city centers; simplify and strengthen tax tools existing; act on the issue of excessive commercial rents; and sustainably support local authorities in their commercial revitalization strategies.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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