With the current business rates system coming under the spotlight in last week’s Grimsey Review, the British Retail Consortium has put forward a case for a two-year freeze on business rates increases. The Consortium argues that it would provide some relief for the retail industry – to include many hard pressed gift retailers – at a time when retail is going through a period of transformation driven by technology and changing consumer behaviour.
Chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, Helen Dickinson OBE, underlines that the burden of business rates isleading to decisions to close stores, while getting in the way of the modernisation and reinvention of Britain’s high streets.
She points out that this comes during a period when the industry is dealing with increasing costs – many resulting from government policies such as the Apprenticeship Levy and the National Living Wage – with many retailers also investing heavily in retraining their workforce for the digital economy, and in new technology to cater for the ways people want to shop.
Emphasising that the current business rates system is “not fit for purpose”, the Consortium is asking the government to freeze business rates until the 2021 revaluation in order to relieve the burden on retail businesses and to allow time for dialogue about the wholesale modernisation of business taxation.
Top: Above: A two year freeze on business rates would be a positive step for the high street, says the British Retail Consortium.
