400 large stores at risk under new business rates proposals, BRC finds

Around 400 large-format stores are at risk of closure, if they are included in the Government’s new business rates surtax on premises with a rateable value over £500,000, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

The BRC anticipates that if all 400 at-risk stores were to close, up to 100,000 jobs could be lost and local councils’ business rates receipts from retail would fall by well over £100m a year.

There are approximately 4,000 large-format retail stores with a rateable value of over £500,000.

It comes as the government is introducing a new permanent reduction in business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) premises.

This will replace some of the previous reliefs available to RHL premises, and will be funded by the new, higher business rates tax band on large properties.

Helen Dickinson, BRC CEO, said: “Britain’s largest shops are magnets, pulling people into high streets, shopping centres and retail parks, supporting thousands of surrounding cafes, restaurants and smaller and independent shops.

“After years of rising costs, far too many stores have disappeared – leaving behind empty shells that once thrived at the heart of our communities. Four hundred more large stores could disappear if the Government forces them into its new higher tax band. This would mean up to 100,000 jobs lost, emptier high streets, and less revenue for the exchequer.”

She added: “The chancellor can back families, jobs and high streets this Autumn, by excluding large shops from the new higher business rates tax band. This would not cost the Exchequer a penny, yet would help secure the future of 400 retail stores, and the communities they support, right across the country. But failure to act risks shuttering hundreds more stores, costing jobs, communities and the economy far more in the long run.”