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A boarded-up building front in Birmingham where big businesses, higher taxes and online shopping are squeezing out independent retailers [Laura Goehler\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\nBirmingham, United Kingdom \u2013 Taking the reins of a family business can be a source of immense pride, but it also comes with enormous pressures.<\/p>\n
When Supreet Suri\u2019s father started a photography business in Birmingham 40 years ago, his hard work paid off and he expanded to four locations around the city.<\/p>\n
Today, the family has just one shop, in a prime location in the city\u2019s Kings Heath High Street. But Suri is now considering relocating.<\/p>\n
The reason: It\u2019s too expensive to continue the business there.<\/p>\n
When Suri moved the business to its current site, it gave it greater visibility \u2013 but also much higher running costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are at a point now where we are seriously considering how do we get out of this space purely to reduce costs,\u201d he tells Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
Despite having a loyal customer base, Suri says the financial rewards are increasingly difficult to find.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sort of working our fingers to the bone, and that\u2019s the side that people don\u2019t see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Living \u2018month to month\u2019<\/p>\n
Suri\u2019s experience reflects a broader struggle on Britain\u2019s high streets as the government presents its budget on Wednesday, with attention focused on whether further relief from business rates could help smaller businesses.<\/p>\n
Business rates are a property-based tax paid by businesses occupying commercial premises, although some smaller properties already qualify for relief.<\/p>\n
For Suri, however, rates are only part of the problem.<\/p>\n
A boarded-up building front in Birmingham where big businesses, higher taxes and online shopping are squeezing out independent retailers [Laura Goehler\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n
There is also the rent, VAT \u2013 a type of sales tax \u2013 wages, pensions, the rising cost of energy and specialist materials, which are all eating into his earnings. Refilling one of his professional printers with ink, he says, costs about 2,000 pounds ($2,664).<\/p>\n
\u201cI pay myself less than the minimum wage [of 12.21 pounds ($16.26) per hour]\u201d, he says when asked how much he earns. \u201cWhen I say that I live month to month, I literally mean that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another challenge Suri and other independent business owners face is competition from online retailers, which now account for 28 percent of UK retail sales.<\/p>\n
King\u2019s Heath high street faces the same challenges as many of Britain\u2019s main commercial thoroughfares: a fight to remain relevant in an age where big businesses, higher taxes and online shopping are squeezing out independent retailers.<\/p>\n
While small business owners on the high street face steeper costs, customers increasingly expect prices comparable to those online, even when they are paying for a specialist, personalised service.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople come to me wanting the quality that we provide, but they want me to match online pricing, which I simply can\u2019t do,\u201d Suri says.<\/p>\n
He understands that the cost-of-living crisis he is struggling with also affects his customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t blame the customer or the consumer for not being able to support your business all of the time,\u201d he says, pointing to household living costs.<\/p>\n
Decline of the high street<\/p>\n
The pressures on retailers come as many customers are feeling increasingly despondent about the state of their high streets.<\/p>\n
Boarded-up shopfronts are a more common sight. Pawnbrokers, betting shops, vape outlets, charity stores and big-chain retailers have moved into high street locations that small business owners can no longer afford. Nearly 14 percent of high street retail units are estimated to be vacant.<\/p>\n
For many who once regularly used their local high street, this new reality has become a symptom of decline and depression, even putting them off going there in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cYears ago, you used to come and have a good look, whatever the weather,\u201d one Birmingham shopper tells Al Jazeera. \u201cBut it\u2019s just the same up here all the time now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another says shopping online is increasingly preferable. \u201cIt\u2019s more convenient as well. Sometimes you come out here and there\u2019s no inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet the same shopper says they want more distinctive local businesses and adds that the government should make it easier for entrepreneurs to open them.<\/p>\n
A struggle to survive<\/p>\n
These challenges go well beyond Birmingham.<\/p>\n
At a parliamentary inquiry into revitalising Britain\u2019s high streets earlier this month, the chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association, Andrew Goodacre, argued that recent business rate reforms had failed to deliver the intended benefits for smaller retailers.<\/p>\n
He told members of parliament that some independent shops are facing higher bills, even as a large supermarket near his home stood to pay substantially less.<\/p>\n
The inquiry heard another troubling argument that legitimate businesses may also face unfair competition from operators which evade taxes. Politicians heard how some central London souvenir shops allegedly use successive limited companies to avoid paying tax, enabling them to pay rents that compliant businesses could not afford.<\/p>\n
The evidence highlights the importance of enforcement alongside tax reform, and warnings that a cut in business rates alone will not stem the deterioration of Britain\u2019s high streets.<\/p>\n
That warning is echoed by Suri, who says a reduction in rates would be welcome but not enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a small step in the right direction,\u201d he says. \u201cBut if the intention really is to help the high streets thrive, there\u2019s a lot of change that needs to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n
His challenge to the UK\u2019s Chancellor of the Exchequer is to spend a month or two running a real high street business and experience the pressures first-hand.<\/p>\n
For a family business that has survived four decades, the question now is whether it can afford another year in the place it once hoped to grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf [the government] makes it easier to actually run an independent business successfully, that\u2019s the first domino in a positive effect that could really help our country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham, United Kingdom \u2013 Taking the reins of a family business can be a source of immense pride,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,4868,101,1076,3378,3,7600,1049],"class_list":["post-897473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-business-and-economy","tag-economy","tag-europe","tag-features","tag-news","tag-retail","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}