Retail bosses have hit out at the Chancellor’s Spring Budget, saying that they feel ignored after calling for business rate reform and changes to apprenticeship levy rules.
Currys Chief Executive, Alex Baldock, labelled the budget “bitterly disappointing” and that this Government has “yet again failed to address retailers’ business rates burden”.
Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “When shops we love shut down, when jobs we need are absent, and when investment we benefit from is lost, it’s our lives and our communities which lose out.
“The cost of living crisis has taken a toll on business and households. Consumer confidence remains low and retail sales volumes in 2023 were the lowest in four years. Yet the Chancellor has done little to promote growth and investment, instead hindering it with the business rates rise in April. This has consequences for jobs and local communities everywhere – from the smallest villages to the biggest cities.”
Mr Baldock commented: “It’s no wonder that more and more stores are having to close their doors when you look at all the costs retailers are facing.
“Sky high business rates, coupled with big increases to wages, and misjudged proposals like those on recycling, heap ever higher costs on those of us with physical stores.”
Ms Dickinson explained that Government inaction will now cost the retail industry £470 million extra every year in business rates.
“This is money that could have been better spent improving our town and city centres, investing in lower prices, maintaining jobs and commerce all over the UK,” she added.
Iceland boss Richard Walker shared his disappointment on Twitter/X: “There’s only one budget that matters and that’s the family budget of my customers, who I doubt will be singing Mr Hunt’s praises.
“The overall tax take remains at a record high, debt is going up not down, yet the public sector is completely broken. Local services are on their knees.
“The Chancellor should be focusing on getting the public finances & economy back on track – not fiddling with National Insurance to give Tory MPs a delusory saccharine rush.”
With the Olympics, in Paris, and the Euros in the not-too-distant future, now was the time to stimulate UK high streets and start to grow consumer confidence. Is this a missed opportunity? Only time will tell.
