All Business rates articles – Page 4
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News
Retailers divided over business rates in submissions to Treasury review
Retail respondents to the Treasury’s call for evidence on business rates reform are split over the benefits and potential risks to the high street of introducing an online sales tax.
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News
Budget: Business rates holiday extended and new recovery grants revealed
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has extended the business rates holiday for a further three months and will offer non-essential retailers new recovery grants of up to £6,000 per store.
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Analysis
The Big Question: Will raising rates on warehouses really save the high street?
After chancellor Rishi Sunak delayed the findings of the Treasury’s business rates review until the autumn, we ask experts whether the proposal from Dixons Carphone boss Alex Baldock and Next chief executive Lord Wolfson to increase rates paid by warehouses is the way to revamp the system
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Analysis
Analysis: Retail’s wishlist for the chancellor ahead of the Budget
Following a year of unprecedented financial pain brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, retailers lay out what they would like to see in Wednesday’s Budget.
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Video
Retail Question Time with Theo Paphitis and Richard Walker
In the first edition of our new video series Retail Question Time, Ryman, Robert Dyas and Boux Avenue owner Theo Paphitis and Iceland managing director Richard Walker discuss government aid for the industry during the pandemic, business rates reform, their hopes for next week’s Budget – and why they both oppose high-speed rail link HS2.
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News
Online retailers launch new trade body to champion ecomm cause
Big-name pureplay retailers have formed an industry association to highlight their contribution to UK success and fight their corner – including on tax.
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News
M&S boss Rowe hits out at ‘unbearable’ business rates burden
Marks & Spencer boss Steve Rowe has warned that the “unbearable yoke” of business rates will spark thousands more job losses unless the tax is overhauled by the government.
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News
Next boss calls for business rates reform as Sunak delays government review
Next boss Lord Wolfson has called for business rates on high street stores to be slashed by a third to stem the tide of store closures.
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News
Burberry becomes first non-essential retailer to return business rates relief
Luxury fashion giant Burberry is to voluntarily hand back savings made through business rates relief during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Analysis
The Big Question: How should business rates be reformed?
Ahead of the Budget on March 3, the thorny issue of business rates has again hit the headlines, with a joint letter, spearheaded by Tesco, calling for a digital tax to be levied on pureplays. Retail Week asks experts what can be done to make business rates fairer?
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News
Retail bosses demand business rates reform and online sales tax
Bosses from 18 retailers have called on chancellor Rishi Sunak to permanently cut business rates in a bid to save the high street.
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Opinion
Alex Baldock: ‘Raise rates for warehouses to save the high street’
We’re now only weeks away from the end of the government’s business rates holiday. I’m sure many of us are grateful for a decisive and vital measure that, for some retailers, has made the difference between surviving the pandemic and not.
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News
BRC urges government action as store vacancies soar
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has urged the government to extend the business rates holiday beyond April to avoid more high street damage after vacancy rates soared at the end of 2020.
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Opinion
‘Asos and Boohoo swoops for Topshop and Debs are changing of the guard’
If proof were needed of the scale of change underway in retail, it came this week as pureplays Asos and Boohoo swooped on two of retail’s most venerable high street names.
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News
Waterstones boss warns store closures loom without further rates relief
Waterstones boss James Daunt has warned that without either an extension to the business rates holiday or other reforms before April, he could be forced to close stores.
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News
Dixons boss Alex Baldock: ‘Business rates reform will save jobs’
Dixons Carphone boss Alex Baldock has remained staunch on his decision not to repay business rates for the time being and urged the government to review the issue.
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News
McColl’s to hang on to rates rebate as Covid costs outweigh savings
C-store retailer McColl’s is set to keep the business rates rebate it was given by the government in March as its chief executive says Covid-related costs have since outstripped the money saved.
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Opinion
Roger Wade: ‘We need to level the playing field between online and high street’
Last week brought the end of shopping restrictions as retail returned across the UK. Sadly, the second lockdown did more damage than we ever expected as high street retailers suffered a double blow of not only the pandemic, but online competition.
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News
Kingfisher agrees to return business rates relief in full
The board of home and DIY giant Kingfisher has agreed to return more than £130m in business rates relief in full, becoming the latest retailer to do so.
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Opinion
‘Essential retailers may have shot sector in foot with rates relief repayments’
In the space of a few days, a wave of essential retailers has voluntarily returned the best part of £2bn in business rates relief to the government. In doing so they have won the public relations battle, but have they lost the long-term rates reform war?