The British Retail Consortium today launched its Buy into Retail Manifesto, calling on Andy Burnham MP to work with retailers and back reforms to employment costs, business rates, energy, and regulation needed to support an incoming government’s ambition for jobs, growth and a thriving high street.
Retailers are clear that these ambitions can only be achieved if businesses have the confidence and certainty to invest in jobs, growth and affordability. This will require greater partnership between government and businesses: something Mr Burnham has promised to do. The timing could not be more important; with youth unemployment rising, retailers have a vital role as the first step on the career ladder for almost a quarter of 18-24 year olds.
Retail employs 2.8 million people in every city, town and village; millions more are employed within its supply chains. These jobs are essential for Burnham’s pledge to create ‘good growth in every postcode’. Yet rising costs, including a £6.5 billion increase in employment and National Insurance in two years, are putting many jobs at risk, with 400,000 lost in the last decade.
Andy Burnham has already begun to outline his focus for Government, including spreading jobs right across the country, making ‘high streets as a symbol of Britain’s renaissance’, and reforming business rates. The retail Manifesto reflects many of these ideas, calling on government to cut retail rates, use recent legislation to crack down on retail crime, cut the cost of employing young people, and ensure skills and employment rights reforms raise standards without harming employment.
The Buy into Retail Manifesto: Jobs, Growth and Affordability, call on Government to:
1. Cut the cost of employing young people to create more jobs
2. Deliver employment rights and skills reforms that keep people in work and training
3. Launch a government-retail taskforce to expand routes for young people into employment
4. Get a grip on retail crime - with zero tolerance
5. Fix business rates to unlock investment in high streets and support local jobs
6. Make electricity costs competitive for retailers so consumers don’t pay the price
7. Support investment in retail sites everywhere
8. Keep goods moving freely across borders and ensure fair competition
9. Strip back overlapping regulation that adds to prices
10. Join up government decisions so new costs and rules don’t land at once
Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said:
"Retail is where the economy shows up in everyday life. It is where millions of people earn a living. Retail is part of the everyday economy, touching every community across the UK.
"When retail thrives, more people are in work, investment flows into local communities, and fierce competition drives prices down for families. But cumulative costs and fragmented policy decisions are holding the industry back. Retailers have absorbed £6.5 billion in additional employment costs since 2024, as well as billions more in new packaging taxes, business rates, and rising electricity costs. The consequences are clear: fewer jobs, less investment and higher prices for consumers.
"Andy Burnham has made collaborating with business to drive growth, high streets, and living standards central to his ambition. Retail is a key partner to deliver it: with the right policies, retail can drive investment, support jobs in every postcode, and keep household essentials affordable. Our manifesto offers a path for Mr Burnham to support the millions of people that rely on retail every day."
