71 UK retail sector CEOs urge govt to introduce retail rates corrector

“Now is the time to level the playing field between industries”, the open letter coordinated by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said.

The retail rates corrector—a 20-per cent downward adjustment in business rates paid on retail properties—aims at redressing the imbalance that sees the retail industry pay 7.4 per cent of all business taxes (£33 billion), a share 1.5 times greater than its share of the overall economy (5 per cent of the gross domestic product).

This tax burden holds back investment in people and places, directly affecting the 3 million people employed by the industry, and the 2.7 million additional people employed within the supply chain, a BRC release said.

It also matters for the tens of millions of shoppers all over the country and the communities they live in.

The United Kingdom has been losing shops at a rate of over 1,000 a year, and research suggests that without action, a further 17,000 shops could close over the next decade.

The retail rates corrector aims not only at stemming this tide of shop closures, but at unlocking new investment in jobs, shops and communities, BRC noted.

What is clear is that our high streets and town centres are paying far more than their fair share of tax. Of retail’s £33-billion total tax bill, a fifth is made up of business rates—the highest of all business sectors.

“We are writing to ask you to use the Autumn Budget to apply a retail rates corrector, a 20-per cent reduction to rates bills for retail properties of all sizes in all locations,” the CEOS wrote.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)