The former Wickes boss leading the latest study of the high street has dismissed one of the key recommendations of the Portas Review. Bill Grimsey argues that Mary Portas’ proposal to switch the business rates multiplier from the retail price index (RPI) to the consumer prices index (CPI) would “make barely any difference.”
According to Grimsey, if the measure had been implemented during 2012 -2013, each of the UK’s commercial properties would have paid only 50p per week less in business rates and he calls for a more radical solution.
“Business rates are a huge problem for retailers but we need root and branch reform not tinkering in the margins.
“The retail sector as a whole is paying a disproportionately high share of this tax and within this sector there is an imbalance, in that smaller retailers are carrying the highest burden,” he said.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has consistently called for business rates, which are higher that rents in some locations, to be reformed. They also argue that basing the multiplier on an annualised average of the CPI would result in far greater savings than those under Portas’ scheme.
“Before the September rate of RPI is published, the BRC is again calling for the government to deliver a freeze in business rates as a short-term measure whilst the process of assessing how the system should be reformed is looked at,” says Helen Dickinson, the director general of the BRC.
Retail properties account for around 25 per cent of the UK’s commercial properties and, on average, one in seven high street shops are currently vacant.
Previous Post
PayPal Pioneers Social Checkout in London
