More than 100 businesses have come together today to call for political parties to commit to a fundamental reform of the business rates system before the General Election.
According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the system is no longer fit for purpose, and has led to punitive rates that are higher than any other property tax in Europe.
The 107 organisations from across manufacturing, services, property, leisure, hospitality and retail have signed an open letter to the three main political party leaders that appears this morning in a full-page advert in The Daily Telegraph.
The wide coalition of signatories, co-ordinated by the BRC, which range from FTSE 100 companies to SMEs, say that business rates are “no longer fit for the purpose of the 21st century” and should be revamped to unleash investment in order to create new skilled and entry-level jobs on the high street, bring new and expanded businesses into local communities and support other industrial investment.
Helen Dickinson, director general of the BRC, comments: “Today’s open letter proposes that the political parties should make a commitment to look at deeper reform of business rates if they form the next Government after the election. The sheer breadth of industries represented shows the strength of our collective belief that the existing system is no longer fit for purpose and that we will support the work of a future Government to carry out reforms so that we can all play our part in growing the UK economy.”
Signatories to the open-letter include the British Property Federation, the Federation of Small Businesses, Homebase, M&S, Sainsbury’s, B&Q, Argos, Bensons, Harveys, the John Lewis Partnership, BIRA, Brighthouse, DFS, Debenhams, Tesco, the Forum for Private Business, Asda and Kronospan.
