Logistics professionals and long-term industrial investors has warned that changes to the business rates system risks damaging the British high street by pushing up costs.
The group, which includes major investors Segro, Prologis and Tritax Big Box, said that the proposal to apply a higher business rates multiplier to more valuable properties would disproportionately affect high-street retailers, manufacturers and SMEs.
As it stands, the bill will introduce a higher multiplier for business with a rateable value – market price – over £500,000, using the proceeds to set a lower tax for smaller businesses.
The bill aims to level the playing field between high street and e-commerce businesses by increasing the amount large e-commerce warehouses pay in bills.
But the investor group said that the “blanket approach” by the Government “risks driving up costs across supply chains, fuelling inflation and deterring investment into precisely the sectors the Government wants to grow.”
According to the investors, only 11 per cent of space in their portfolios is occupied by e-commerce businesses, while 66 per cent is used by transport, logistics, manufacturing and retail occupiers.
“Without a more balanced approach, these reforms could ultimately weaken the very industries they seek to support, placing pressure on SMEs, delaying sustainability upgrades, and harming the high street,” the group said.
https://couriernews.co.uk/blog/logistics-say-reform-could-drive-high-street-prices/