Buy into Retail Manifesto
Ten ways to support jobs, growth and affordability
Ten ways to support jobs, growth and affordability
Increased employer National insurance and above-inflation rises in the NLW added £6.5 billion in retail costs in two years. We see the impact on jobs: more than a million young people not earning or learning, and 66,000 fewer retail jobs than a year ago. Government should reduce employer NICs for everyone under 25 and retain the 18-20 National Minimum Wage rate.
The country relies on the entry-level and part-time roles retail creates, but the Employment Rights Act and Growth and Skills Levy reforms risk making those jobs harder to create and invest in. Fewer opportunities mean higher unemployment and welfare costs. Reforms should raise standards, not reduce the flexibility people and retailers need with guaranteed hours protections focusing on genuinely exploitative contracts (eight hours a week or less), giving businesses more time to prepare. A reformed Growth and Skills Levy should free up unspent retail contributions for more flexible courses, including bringing in shorter foundation apprenticeships.
We share Alan Milburn’s concern that support for young people is ineffective and spread across too many local and national schemes, making navigation difficult and reducing impact. Working together to implement the upcoming reforms in the final Milburn report, retailers can help government to simplify and scale support to maximise the chances of a young person getting and keeping a job.
Retail crime has soared: 1,600 incidents of violence and abuse a day. 5.5 million thefts a year, witnessed by 14 million people across the UK. Retail workers are often victims and customers are left feel unsafe, impacting the ability of high streets to thrive. Following the Crime and Policing Act, we now need greater police presence on the ground, fast-track prosecutions for repeat offenders, and a zero-tolerance approach.
Retail taxes increased 20% in the last two years and, along with hospitality, retail pays around 75% of profits in tax, higher than all other industries. Business rates are a major fixed cost and UK property taxes are more than double France, the next highest in the OECD, and five times more than Germany. Despite changes aimed to help the high street, retail pays £1.8bn more rates than two years ago. When rates are high, retailers hire and invest less, growth and innovation slows, and shoppers pay higher prices. Business rates reform should bring down the cost and provide multi-year certainty so retailers can plan investment and job creation with confidence.
Retail needs energy for refrigeration, transport, digital operations and more and is the third largest UK energy user. Having decarbonised 90% now comes from electricity and 10% from gas. Electricity prices are almost 40% higher than Ireland’s, the next most expensive in Europe, in part due to non-commodity charges (government taxes and levies) making up two-thirds of typical bills. Government should extend energy relief schemes to retail and its supply chain, move policy levies for renewables off electricity bills into general taxation, and reform the recovery of network charges to stop higher costs feeding into higher prices for customers.
Fixing planning is a fast way to help revive local growth. From opening new stores or distribution hubs to installing solar panels and driving automation, slow and inconsistent decision-making bogs down revitalisation, limits productivity growth and pushes up costs, holding back regeneration, housing, and local growth. Government should introduce fast tracking for low-risk planning applications, prioritise regeneration in national planning policy, streamline change-of-use rules, and incentivise repurposing vacant units.
Retail depends on fair competition and efficient, resilient supply chains to keep shelves stocked and prices affordable. Unfair competition from overseas sellers and delays in addressing low-value imports puts UK retailers at a disadvantage, so the government should act faster on low-value imports ahead of 2028, ensuring a level playing field between UK-based and overseas retailers. Trade agreements like the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement will help reduce costs and red tape at the border, boost trade with the EU, and bear down on future food price inflation, provided government negotiates workable transition arrangements.
Multiple overlapping regulations, across employment, the environment, food, consumer law, and competition law, adds to costs. For example, retailers pay three levies on packaging – extended producer responsibility, plastic packaging tax, and packaging recovery notes – costing £2bn a year. Government’s deregulatory agenda is right, but to succeed, it requires focus and partnership with industry to identify those regulations that can be simplified or removed; while protecting the outcomes we all want from good regulation.
New legislation produced by one department often pays no regard to new or existing legislation produced by others, introducing a cumulative burden, often carrying substantial costs and need for systems changes. In 2027, retailers need to implement the Employment Rights Act, a £2bn deposit return scheme for bottles and cans, make major product and labelling changes for the SPS agreement, and apply new rules on food nutrition. Joined-up government means taking a central view of all the costs and burdens and setting a simple test: will introducing these new rules at this time promote or hinder investment in jobs, growth and prices?
Why should policymakers Buy into Retail?
Retail is where the economy shows up in everyday life. Where millions of people earn a living, high streets and town centres stay alive, and families feel the cost of living. It is on every high street, retail park, and mobile phone in the country. As a competitive industry, serving customers across multiple channels, it drives innovation, choice, and value for customers. And it’s not just what you see and experience as a shopper: its supply chain and distribution networks are on every farm, industrial estate, port and airport in the land.
Because of that reach, retail matters to things people care about most: having a job, paying the bills, and their local high street. When retail is doing well, more people are working and it is easier for families to make ends meet. When the industry is under strain, the impact is felt quickly, through job losses, empty shops on high streets, and higher prices for customers.
Retail provides jobs that meet people’s needs, whether it’s in a shop, a distribution centre or at a supplier. The industry employs nearly three million people directly, and 2.7 million more through its supply chains and is the UK’s most important ladder into work, accounting for almost a quarter of all youth employment. Hundreds of thousands of people secure their first job through the flexible, local, and seasonal opportunities that retail provides.
Entry-level and part-time roles in retail are often a young person’s first job, or a way back into work for parents and carers, older workers, and those returning after illness or managing health conditions. These jobs are a lifeline that turn opportunity into something real: a payslip at the end of the month, work experience, confidence and a path forward. For many families, that security is the difference between coping and falling behind.
With the right policies, retail can drive growth in every community of the UK, create more jobs in every postcode, and help keep prices low for customers everywhere. But rising costs and poor policy design are holding back this future. This plan sets out the ten actions government must take now to unlock investment and growth.
We want to work with the new Prime Minister to create jobs, boost growth, and improve regulation, for the benefit of everyone. It’s time to #Buyintoretail.
2026 Buy into Retail Manifesto
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