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Frasers Group has warned that the £2m business rates cap announced in the spring budget on 3 March 2021 will make it “nearly impossible” for the group to take on ex-Debenhams sites with the inherent jobs created.
The group stated that the cap for businesses from July 2021 to March 2022, makes it a “near worthless” support package for large retailers, adding that it will need to review its entire portfolio to ascertain stores that are “unviable” due to the “unrealistic” cap.
Whilst the retail industry as a whole has “repeatedly” asked for structural reform of business rates, “none has been forthcoming”, it said.
Frasers Group, along with other retailers, expressed its disappointment in the budget announcement after it expected to see a suitable relief structural reform implemented.
In a statement released today, it said it believes that retailers should pay the “fair amount of rates” in line with realistic rateable values, adding that instead it continues to have an “unwieldy, overly complex, and out of date” business rates regime.
