300,000 retail jobs to go in next three years, retailers warn

According to the RJA, a “perfect storm” of additional costs and bureaucracy will lead to 300,000 workers leaving by 2028.

The grouping said the number of people departing the sector could be even higher because the significant changes announced in the budget were not included in their forecast.

It is the latest warning from industry chiefs to the Treasury to lighten the load on retailers.

Speaking yesterday at LIVE: Retail Week x The Grocer, BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said the changes announced in the Budget would “hit hardest the bit of retail that is so important to society” – the local, entry-level jobs and high street stores across the UK.

Last year, 82 retail bosses signed a letter forecasting £7bn in additional costs because of rate increases and threshold changes to national insurance, an increase in the national living wage and a packaging levy.

Retail bosses are now fearful of even further costs due to planned changes to business rates which will increase rates for bigger properties and reduce them for smaller ones.

Earlier this week, Marks & Spencer chief executive Stuart Machin said retailers were being “raided like a piggy bank”.

A Treasury spokesman told The Telegraph: “We delivered a once-in-a-Parliament Budget to wipe the slate clean. Now we are focused on going further and faster to kickstart economic growth so working people have more money in their pockets.

“We’re levelling the playing field for high street businesses by permanently cutting business rates and removing the £110,000 cap for over 280,000 retail, hospitality and leisure business properties, while also capping corporation tax.”