JD Wetherspoon and Pizza Pilgrims among 170 businesses calling for action on business rates relief as Labour’s Autumn budget loom_Nhy
JD Wetherspoon and Pizza Pilgrims are among 170 businesses which are calling for action on business rates relief as Labour‘s Autumn budget approaches.
Hundreds of UK hospitality bosses wrote an open letter to the Chancellor Rachel Reeves calling for permanent action.
They warned that high street investments ‘will be curtailed, employment opportunities will be squandered, and ultimately, we will see higher levels of business failures’ if nothing is done.
The current business rate relief is 75 per cent but is due to expire on March 31.
The letter reads: ‘As a bricks-and-mortar sector, hospitality is at the core of our high streets and local communities nationwide.
JD Wetherspoon and Pizza Pilgrims are among 170 businesses which are calling for action on business rates relief as Labour ‘s Autumn budget approaches
There have been signs of growing anxiety within government over how to find extra cash from already-struggling Brits (pictured, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves)
Pictured are the Pizza Pilgrims co-founders in 2020
‘It creates places where people want to live work and invest. But business rates penalise businesses based in higher cost central locations.
‘In fact, we pay three times more than we should, based on economic activity levels – that is an overpayment of over £2billion.
‘To put it simply, our tax system discourages people from running high street businesses at a time where we should be encouraging them.
‘The 75 per cent relief has been helpful in recent years, at least for some businesses, but it disappears 153 days after you deliver your Budget.’
It comes as fears mount that Rachel Reeves will impose one of the biggest tax hikes in history at the Budget.
The respected IFS think-tank has warned that Rachel Reeves needs to find around £25billion of increases on October 30 if she wants to avoid austerity and meet Labour’s manifesto commitments.
However, other analysts have suggested the total could be even higher at £30billion. And Treasury sources have been briefing that the ‘black hole’ in the books could require £40billion of tax rises and spending cuts.
But there have been signs of growing anxiety within government over the will be found cash from already-struggling Brits.
With the Treasury now in the ‘tunnel’ of wrangling with the OBR watchdog, there have been jibes about ‘disarray’.
Rumours have been circulating that manifesto measures such as imposing VAT on private school fees and cracking down on non-doms will not bring in as much as hoped.
And having ruled out changes to headline income tax, VAT and national insurance rates, the Chancellor could be left relying on an array of smaller raids – the effects of which can be very hard to predict.
