The Government: Fair Rates for Retail
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Fair Rates for Retail
Retailers pay 28% of all business rates and face a £175m increase next year.
This will come on top of two years of high rises which have added £500m to retailers’ costs of doing business in the past two years.
Another rise takes money away which might otherwise be spent on investment, such as job creation and is a heavy burden to bear when retailers are already battling tough trading conditions.
The use of RPI results in an artificial and arbitrary rates regime and must be changed. A switch to a 12-month average of the less volatile Consumer Prices Index (CPI), which typically moves in a narrower range, would ensure greater long-term affordability and certainty.