BRC responds to the Chancellor’s Speech
Responding to the Chancellor’s Speech, Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive at the British Retail Consortium, said:
The Chancellor’s speech promised faster growth driven by greater investment. Retailers welcome the government’s focus on growth and in particular its calls for quicker planning decisions and improvements to skills and training through the creation of Skills England. Yet retail investment is weighed down by £7bn of new costs this year due to increases to employer NICs, higher NLW, and the new packaging levy. These costs are preventing new investment in shops and jobs, and forcing retailers to raise prices.
To mitigate the impact of the Budget and unlock retail investment right across the country, the Government should ensure its proposed reforms to business rates do not result in any shop paying more than they already do. This would not only give high streets and other shopping locations a much-needed shot in the arm, but with retailers already paying over one fifth of the total business rates bill, would help rebalance the disproportionate level of taxation levied on the retail industry.
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