If the message to prime minister Boris Johnson and chancellor Sajid Javid on business rates wasn’t already clear, it certainly is now.

Ahead of next month’s Budget – Britain’s first since leaving the EU on January 31 – the CBI and Institute of Directors have both waded in to urge Javid to review the property tax system.

The former has called for a “comprehensive review” in a bid to “reduce the bill on individual businesses”.

CBI director-general Dame Carolyn Fairbairn says Javid’s Budget offers him “the chance to turn rising optimism into a surge in investment across the UK”. It is a chance he must take.

The problem is that the voice of retail has gone unheard in Parliament for too long. Even as job losses have racked up – around 10,000 already this year – the government has seemingly turned a blind eye and focused its energies elsewhere.

Johnson wants to leave a lasting legacy as prime minister. He wants history to remember him as the man who delivered Brexit and a prosperous future for the UK as a country going it alone. As a result, he appears to be backing a clutch of big bets – the industries and regions that he believes can evolve and thrive over the next five to 10 years.

“Little consideration is given to a sector that champions social mobility, provides vital services and donates tens of millions of pounds every year to charitable causes”

Right now, retail doesn’t feature in the list of horses he is backing. That is perhaps little wonder, given the popular but unhelpful narrative of job losses, failing companies and dying high streets that is being peddled at a national level. Clearly, it is a narrative that doesn’t paint the full picture of this dynamic industry, but it is the picture being thrust, all too often, in front of this government.

Little consideration is being given to retail as a sector that champions social mobility, provides vital services that are the bedrock of communities and donates tens of millions of pounds every year to charitable causes.

Last week’s Retail Week Awards judging day – the winners will be revealed next month – showed this industry at its brilliant best. The shortlist highlighted the emphasis retailers place on sustainability and protecting the planet. It highlighted how much this industry cares for its people. And it highlighted how crucial a healthy retail industry is to this country’s economy.

When it is at its best, retail can be one of the winners for the prime minister.

Some self-help measures are undoubtedly required from businesses in order to achieve that status, but they need government support, too. Just ask the likes of Toys R Us, Maplin, Poundworld and most recently Beales, all of which have been battered into submission – in part at least – by a perfect storm of rising costs including business rates, the national living wage and the apprenticeship levy.

But now is the time for the industry to hammer home that cry for help as a historic Budget looms large on the horizon.

It is not a new plea to parliament. Retailers and the BRC have long been calling on the government to overhaul the broken business rates system.

Tesco boss Dave Lewis has repeatedly lamented the business rates system – the grocer’s bill has doubled to £700m in the past decade.

Marks & Spencer boss Steve Rowe has blamed its £180m-plus business rates burden as one of the reasons it is closing more than 100 stores in the next three years.

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group warned just last month that there will be “further large retail failures in the new year” unless an “urgent fundamental review” is launched into how the tax is levied.

By contrast, online titan Amazon paid just £63.4m in business rates in 2018 – about £40m less than Next – despite raking in sales of £8.8bn.

“If the chancellor is serious about his bid to ‘unleash the enormous potential of our great country’, retail must be a part of that thinking”

Arriving at a feasible solution to level that playing field won’t happen overnight. That much was made clear just last week, when the Retail Sector Council admitted “more work needs to be done” on its own proposals to offset lower business rates with a 2% hike in corporation tax.

But if the chancellor is serious about his bid to “unleash the enormous potential of our great country”, retail must be a part of that thinking.

On March 11, Javid must put his money and that famous red briefcase where his mouth is and get the ball rolling on a review of the archaic business rates system.

Heed the words of Lewis, Rowe, Ashley and Fairbairn. Back an industry that last year contributed £394bn to the UK economy and employed 2.9 million people. Back an industry that accounts for a third of all consumer spending in this country. Back an industry that is transforming at a rapid pace to be fit for the future that Johnson and Javid are bidding to build.

Back retail, chancellor. It won’t let you down.