Julian Richer: ‘Questioning Sunak’s rates decision is not selling out retail’

By Julian Richer2020-11-16T06:30:00

Julian Richer_DSF9065 - credit Peter Searle

Following Retail Week’s recent article about retailers squabbling like “cats in a bag”, I felt the need to write after some comments I made at the recent Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference may have been misunderstood.

I have huge respect for our supermarkets who by and large do a great job and, although they obviously benefited during the Covid lockdowns through their status as essential retailers, they have had their work cut out just like the rest of us.

That’s especially the case for their troops on the ground, who must have had a stressful time of it, and many who do not even earn the real living wage.

At the CBI conference I questioned why the big grocers had received a rates holiday when they were obviously doing so well.

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