impacted by the employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) tax hike<\/a>, a new packaging tax and the minimum wage increase.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re seeing the adverse impact of that. Employment has slowed. Food inflation is up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a risk here that, by increasing business taxes, it could see a further slowdown in hiring and further increase in food inflation. I would be trying not to increase the tax burden on business any further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ed Cornforth, associate economist at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), said retailers\u2019 profit margins had already been \u201csqueezed\u201d by recent tax rises and higher costs. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be damaging in increasing the pressure to put up prices and disincentivising firms to invest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Supermarkets themselves have also warned against the plans. Sainsbury\u2019s chief executive Simon Roberts said earlier this year that further increases in business rates \u201cwon\u2019t stimulate the growth or investment into our high streets and jobs that we all want to see\u201d.<\/p>\n
Chris Webb, Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group for hospitality and tourism, said reform was needed but warned against \u201cshort-term fixes\u201d that set small and large firms against one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur high streets rely on a mix of strong independents and bigger stores that bring people in,\u201d he said. \u201cKnock one down to lift the other and you\u2019ll only speed up the decline.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fair way to balance the high street<\/p>\n
Vikki Slade, Liberal Democrat MP and chair of the APPG for town centres, said she did not agree with what she called an \u201ceither-or approach\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cCutting business rates for smaller firms shouldn\u2019t mean higher rates for larger ones,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile some big stores may be doing better, it\u2019s wrong to suggest they\u2019re operating in a thriving environment. The whole retail sector, and with it our town centres, is struggling. The last thing we need right now are rate rises.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew Griffith, the Shadow Business Secretary, said Labour\u2019s plan showed the Government was \u201crobbing Peter to pay Paul\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou certainly don\u2019t help small firms by clobbering the big ones that keep them afloat,\u201d he told The i Paper. \u201cPiling more taxes onto retailers will only push up prices, close more shops and hollow out our towns.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Government argues the policy could be seen as a fair way to rebalance the system helping smaller businesses without increasing general taxes. It says only one per cent of premises fall into the higher rate category, but this will include large warehouses owned by the online giants.<\/p>\n
In a September update, treasury secretary Dan Tomlinson wrote: \u201cAny reforms taken forward will continue to recognise the importance of high streets as a vital source of essential services, a focal point for communities and the foundations of strong local economies.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the BRC said excluding large retailers from the new higher multiplier would \u201ccost the Treasury nothing\u201d and help protect jobs and prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chancellor has a choice,\u201d Dickinson said. \u201cProtect the businesses that hold our town centres together \u2014 or risk a wave of closures that pushes prices higher for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Government has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Economists say higher business rates risk keeping food prices above 5 per cent next year Food prices could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,1137,1126,1431,2053,1394,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-195806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-food-prices","tag-high-street","tag-inflation","tag-labour-party","tag-politics-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}