Not just business rates that need to change, but also how much landlords can charge. Surely that also needs to be looked at?
Business rates
Most shops are subject to paying business rates to their local council, at an amount directed by the UK government. This is calculated via a ‘multiplier’ which usually sits at around 50% of the rental value of the property. For example, if your rent — or rateable value — is £3,000 per month, then your business rates will be approximately £1,500 per month on top of your rent.
There are certain properties and business types that are exempt from paying business rates and the UK government periodically announces major business rate relief programmes to help stimulate small business growth.
In 2024/25 the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief scheme provides eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality and leisure properties a 75% relief, up to a limit of £110,000 per business.
Whatever your business, it’s worth investigating the various types of rates relief available, especially for small businesses, as a way to save your business significant amounts of money while setting up.
It531z on
Same MP who was a lead rebel against welfare reform. Not sure where she wants to get the money to fund this
audigex on
It sees weird to me that we tax businesses just for existing, especially based on their rent
Just tax them on their profits (while simultaneously closing the bullshit loopholes big corporations use where they pay a “license fee” to a parent company based in a tax haven, where the license fee happens to be most of their taxable profits)
Powerful-Reward-9108 on
This is just tinkering. The whole high street model needs targeted, revolutionary change. It costs me upwards of £6 to park in my local city. There are fewer reasons for me to visit with the advent of the internet, so there are shuttered up shops along with the usual American sweet shops and Turkish barbers. The last big department store announced it was closing two days ago.
IMO, the high street needs to be more than chain restaurants and shops. We need new businesses and formats that offer excitement and a draw against the always-online world – but crucially are affordable without ancillary costs like sky-high parking.
Top-Spinach-9832 on
Yet this is the same MP (Rachel Maskell) who has refused to accept any cuts to spending whatsoever.
mattymattymatty96 on
Convenient that she leaves out that without money for the public to spend the high street also wouldnt survive.
We all know these companies are passing this rise onto the consumer and if the government reduces it now they aint just gonna lower prices. They will just pocket it /the majority of it.
Salty-Bid1597 on
Most small businesses are exempt from rates.
I suspect minimum wage and NIC rises are a much greater threat to them and certainly disincentivise employing anyone until it’s absolutely necessary.
But it’s certainly unclear why the government is doubling down on taxing local businesses and crushing hospitality while the low hanging fruit of private equity and vat evading foreign importers are just sitting there ripe for the picking.
A cynic might think it was some kind of ideological crusade or perhaps just looking after your donors.
aleopardstail on
could also be worth looking at the trend of making high streets harder to get to with a car, makes it harder to get shopping home and easier to go to an out of town place
leaves high streets for those without cars
WiseBelt8935 on
an interesting thought but isn’t business rates an abstract land tax?
whittingtonwarrior on
Isn’t a more permanent better standard of rates relief being introduced in April?
Spamgrenade on
It collapsed years ago. Town centres are dead. Worth noting that businesses themselves have done nothing at all to adapt even thought the high street has been changing for decades. Literally all they gave been doing is whining about taxation. Even worse than that, the businesses in my high street have been resisting pedestrianisation for years. Because they think its imperative that customers can pull up directly at the shop door.
Government could stop all retail taxation tomorrow and these shops will still die. They are doing nothing to help themselves, They deserve to go bust.
CodeToManagement on
To be honest the high street is dead unless councils step in and help plus getting rid of business rates and just taxing on profit. Or at least no business rates for businesses employing under 10 people etc.
If you look at like the big shopping centers they don’t just allow 20 vape shops to move in as nobody would go there but it’s ok for high streets to be like that.
There needs to be like a planned goal for high streets and a targeted approach to bringing in complementary businesses, ie lower tax for a couple years if you’re a business that’s new and a higher rate or some surcharge if you’re the 5th business of that type already.
Also do something to improve and make these places look nice and attractive. Nobody wants to shop in run down places.
Plus make it easier to transition from like retail to nightlife. I went to Italy last year and in the evening some of the roads get closed off and restaurants put chairs and tables outside and the area isn’t just dead, people walking along and talking stop in for drinks etc. we need that kind of culture so it’s not just a 9-5 area.
Inside_Performance32 on
High street will collapse because it’s 30% or more cheaper to shop for the exact same thing online .
It’s not rates that have killed business it’s Amazon , but no one wants to ever blame them because it’s a convenience people won’t give up .
CapillaryClinton on
Business rates in London are absolutely crippling, its mad to have to often pay another 75% of the rent, non negotiable.
GreyFoxNinjaFan on
The system is stacked against small and entrepreneurial businesses beyond the first few years of operation for for large organisations with the ability to absorb such costs and avoid other taxes. Costa and Starbucks opening on a high street are a death knell to small coffee shops.
pajamakitten on
It has already collapsed in many places. Business rates are not helping but reversing those is not going to bring back dead high streets to life. You need a raft of measures to do that, but even that would ignore how shopping has changed. We need to gear them towards experiences to try and revive them.
Competitive_Pen7192 on
Surely if they’re squeezed too hard then they fold and the owners of vacant streets get zero income?
DiamondCalibre on
The high street has collapsed, walked through the town centre the other day, pretty much every unit is empty, the ones that are left are doing no trade by the looks of it.
Twattymcgee123 on
Do you know what would help?
Tax Amazon and any other companies that use legal tax dodging ways to scale up and crush UK business’s appropriately .
The_Thinking_Elf on
This is the same person who voted for even more unproductive welfare spending and then has shocked pikachu face when there is not enough money to actually do something productive (like reducing business rates).
This country is so full of economic illiterates its awful.
Beginning_Ad_7825 on
Why can’t we just get rid of Sunday trading hours so businesses can open for longer?
Cats_oftheTundra on
If Turkish barbers, vape shops, and mobile shops can run profitable businesses then I don’t see the issue. Clearly everyone else has a skill issue, M&S included.
Throbbie-Williams on
High streets will collapse anyway, there simply is not the same need for them that used to exist, they need to be shrunken down and concentrated, less shops and more experiences.
Due-Somewhere-1790 on
How can this woman be calling for lower taxes when she also campaigns for significantly more state spending? Pure fantasy.
bazelgette on
Seems to me that the high street is more at risk from online shopping such as Amazon, than the normal business taxes (I may be wrong, I have done no research). Fairly sure that Amazon don’t pay their fair share in taxes though…
The rise of online shopping is proportional to the decline in high street shops… those that do not online shop, prove me wrong.
25 Comments
Not just business rates that need to change, but also how much landlords can charge. Surely that also needs to be looked at?
Business rates
Most shops are subject to paying business rates to their local council, at an amount directed by the UK government. This is calculated via a ‘multiplier’ which usually sits at around 50% of the rental value of the property. For example, if your rent — or rateable value — is £3,000 per month, then your business rates will be approximately £1,500 per month on top of your rent.
There are certain properties and business types that are exempt from paying business rates and the UK government periodically announces major business rate relief programmes to help stimulate small business growth.
In 2024/25 the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief scheme provides eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality and leisure properties a 75% relief, up to a limit of £110,000 per business.
Whatever your business, it’s worth investigating the various types of rates relief available, especially for small businesses, as a way to save your business significant amounts of money while setting up.
Same MP who was a lead rebel against welfare reform. Not sure where she wants to get the money to fund this
It sees weird to me that we tax businesses just for existing, especially based on their rent
Just tax them on their profits (while simultaneously closing the bullshit loopholes big corporations use where they pay a “license fee” to a parent company based in a tax haven, where the license fee happens to be most of their taxable profits)
This is just tinkering. The whole high street model needs targeted, revolutionary change. It costs me upwards of £6 to park in my local city. There are fewer reasons for me to visit with the advent of the internet, so there are shuttered up shops along with the usual American sweet shops and Turkish barbers. The last big department store announced it was closing two days ago.
IMO, the high street needs to be more than chain restaurants and shops. We need new businesses and formats that offer excitement and a draw against the always-online world – but crucially are affordable without ancillary costs like sky-high parking.
Yet this is the same MP (Rachel Maskell) who has refused to accept any cuts to spending whatsoever.
Convenient that she leaves out that without money for the public to spend the high street also wouldnt survive.
We all know these companies are passing this rise onto the consumer and if the government reduces it now they aint just gonna lower prices. They will just pocket it /the majority of it.
Most small businesses are exempt from rates.
I suspect minimum wage and NIC rises are a much greater threat to them and certainly disincentivise employing anyone until it’s absolutely necessary.
But it’s certainly unclear why the government is doubling down on taxing local businesses and crushing hospitality while the low hanging fruit of private equity and vat evading foreign importers are just sitting there ripe for the picking.
A cynic might think it was some kind of ideological crusade or perhaps just looking after your donors.
could also be worth looking at the trend of making high streets harder to get to with a car, makes it harder to get shopping home and easier to go to an out of town place
leaves high streets for those without cars
an interesting thought but isn’t business rates an abstract land tax?
Isn’t a more permanent better standard of rates relief being introduced in April?
It collapsed years ago. Town centres are dead. Worth noting that businesses themselves have done nothing at all to adapt even thought the high street has been changing for decades. Literally all they gave been doing is whining about taxation. Even worse than that, the businesses in my high street have been resisting pedestrianisation for years. Because they think its imperative that customers can pull up directly at the shop door.
Government could stop all retail taxation tomorrow and these shops will still die. They are doing nothing to help themselves, They deserve to go bust.
To be honest the high street is dead unless councils step in and help plus getting rid of business rates and just taxing on profit. Or at least no business rates for businesses employing under 10 people etc.
If you look at like the big shopping centers they don’t just allow 20 vape shops to move in as nobody would go there but it’s ok for high streets to be like that.
There needs to be like a planned goal for high streets and a targeted approach to bringing in complementary businesses, ie lower tax for a couple years if you’re a business that’s new and a higher rate or some surcharge if you’re the 5th business of that type already.
Also do something to improve and make these places look nice and attractive. Nobody wants to shop in run down places.
Plus make it easier to transition from like retail to nightlife. I went to Italy last year and in the evening some of the roads get closed off and restaurants put chairs and tables outside and the area isn’t just dead, people walking along and talking stop in for drinks etc. we need that kind of culture so it’s not just a 9-5 area.
High street will collapse because it’s 30% or more cheaper to shop for the exact same thing online .
It’s not rates that have killed business it’s Amazon , but no one wants to ever blame them because it’s a convenience people won’t give up .
Business rates in London are absolutely crippling, its mad to have to often pay another 75% of the rent, non negotiable.
The system is stacked against small and entrepreneurial businesses beyond the first few years of operation for for large organisations with the ability to absorb such costs and avoid other taxes. Costa and Starbucks opening on a high street are a death knell to small coffee shops.
It has already collapsed in many places. Business rates are not helping but reversing those is not going to bring back dead high streets to life. You need a raft of measures to do that, but even that would ignore how shopping has changed. We need to gear them towards experiences to try and revive them.
Surely if they’re squeezed too hard then they fold and the owners of vacant streets get zero income?
The high street has collapsed, walked through the town centre the other day, pretty much every unit is empty, the ones that are left are doing no trade by the looks of it.
Do you know what would help?
Tax Amazon and any other companies that use legal tax dodging ways to scale up and crush UK business’s appropriately .
This is the same person who voted for even more unproductive welfare spending and then has shocked pikachu face when there is not enough money to actually do something productive (like reducing business rates).
This country is so full of economic illiterates its awful.
Why can’t we just get rid of Sunday trading hours so businesses can open for longer?
If Turkish barbers, vape shops, and mobile shops can run profitable businesses then I don’t see the issue. Clearly everyone else has a skill issue, M&S included.
High streets will collapse anyway, there simply is not the same need for them that used to exist, they need to be shrunken down and concentrated, less shops and more experiences.
How can this woman be calling for lower taxes when she also campaigns for significantly more state spending? Pure fantasy.
Seems to me that the high street is more at risk from online shopping such as Amazon, than the normal business taxes (I may be wrong, I have done no research). Fairly sure that Amazon don’t pay their fair share in taxes though…
The rise of online shopping is proportional to the decline in high street shops… those that do not online shop, prove me wrong.