BRC submission to Autumn Statement 2023

A summary of recommendations is below, and you can download the full submission at the end of this page. 

Business taxes, retail property and card fees

Business rates:

• Help to cut inflation by freezing the business rates multiplier in 2024/25 and removing the requirement for rates to raise a fixed sum annually.
• Stimulate investment in communities by reducing the business rates for all retailers through a multiplier cut to 34.8p and implementing permanent improvement reliefs.

Retail property:

• Consider introduction of a fast-track planning approval system for low-key planning applications. There could be automatic approval if it met certain criteria.
• Introduce a statutory time limit on the time take for planning decisions, and improve the committee process, combined with a limit on information required and a mediated resolution process.
• Ensure that the principle of security of tenure is not undermined by the review of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.

Tax-free shopping:

• Encourage international visitor spend and restore the UK’s competitive advantage against European countries by reinstating tax-free shopping for international visitors including EU citizens.

VAT relief on product donations to charities:

• Enable a significant increase in business support for people in need by extending the VAT relief on product donations to charities for onward sale to direct donations to individuals and households.

VAT on period pants:

• Reclassify period pants as ‘menstrual products’ and exempt them from VAT.

VAT on reuse, repair and recycling

• Accelerate the move to a circular economy for goods by lowering or removing the rate of VAT on reused, repaired and refurbished goods and services.

Card fees:

• Hold a full review to examine whether interchange fees are fit for purpose in the UK payments landscape to ensure that the PSR’s ongoing market reviews result in meaningful action.

Incentivising investment in plant and machinery:

• Stimulate retail investment in plant and machinery by making capital allowances full expensing permanent.

Tax incentives to increase employee health and wellbeing:

• Incentivise further retail investment in occupational health and employee assistance services for colleagues by making both non-taxable benefits in kind.
• From a strategic perspective, focus workplace health policy and legislation on early interventions and addressing long-term absence due to sickness.

People and skills

Apprenticeship Levy:

• Stimulate greater investment in skills training, supporting the workforce of the future, by expanding the Levy into a wider Skills Levy.
• Develop a coordinated approach to accessing funds with the devolved governments.

National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage

• Adopt a cautious approach to setting the National Living Wage for 2024/5, with a sustainable forward trajectory which responds to wider economic conditions.

Net zero and sustainability

Clean energy:

• Encourage investment in renewable and efficiency energy projects by providing fiscal and financial incentives e.g. by extending capital allowances full expensing beyond March 2026.
• Further stimulate investment by ensuring that the renewable energy market gives a fair green energy price for households and businesses, underpinned by a review of the REGO scheme.

Net zero logistics:

• Accelerate uptake of green fuelled vehicles by providing grants and tax incentives for investment in vehicles and infrastructure upgrades.
• Bring more green fuelled vehicles to market, stimulating industry investment, by providing R&D funding for engine and vehicle manufacturers.
• Further stimulate investment by removing the unnecessary additional training requirements for 4.25 tonne green fuelled vans and reclassify them as Light Commercial Vehicles.
• Give businesses confidence to invest by developing consistent long-term approach to EV road taxation.
• Incentivise private sector investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure by applying the 5% VAT rate on domestic charging to commercial charging.

Resource and waste strategy:

• Increase in recycling rates by ringfencing packaging EPR and Plastic Packaging Tax funds for new recycling infrastructure investment.
• Ensure that resource and waste policy proposals are coherent, represent value for money and do not add to inflationary pressures on retail by working with industry and Defra to support cost-efficient EPR schemes.
• Business rates relief for reverse vending machines (DRS).