Crippling business rates are stopping shopkeepers opening new businesses to revitalisie Britain’s high streets, a top retail boss says.
He said his Teesside-based firm was now ‘more discerning’ about adding to its 160 branches because of higher costs, even as it posted a record £11.4 million profit last year.
He said: ‘If you want vibrant high streets, you need people who want to open shops [but] there’s no encouragement.’
Neither Labour nor the Tory governments before them have ‘done anything’ about rates, despite the industry railing against the property tax for decades.
‘I’d urge them to do something about it even if they change it to a sales tax, to take the fixed cost away,’ Kenyon said.
‘They need to have a look at it, because it’s a tax on businesses on the High Street.’
The Teesside-based firm, which offers pawnbroking, jewellery sales and travel money, has been expanding.
Peter Kenyon, head of pawn shop chain, slated Chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured) for failing to address the issue of revitalising Britain’s high streets
Mr Kenyon said his Teesside-based firm was now ‘more discerning’ about adding to its 160 branches because of higher costs, even as it posted a record £11.4 million profit last year
Kenyon echoed concerns from the likes of Marks & Spencer and Pets at Home that Reeves’s changes to employers’ National Insurance contributions will hurt people in need of flexible, part time jobs
But due to the burden of rates, which can be dramatically higher in some areas, he is ‘cautious’ about the expansion plans.
‘We’ll open more but we will be very discerning on where to go,’ he said amid fears of mass closures.
‘We are looking at the retailers around us to make sure they are still going to be there in the next few years, to put down our roots.’
Industry experts have predicted that 17,350 shops will shut down in 2025, after 13,000 shops closed their doors for good last year.
And Kenyon echoed concerns from the likes of Marks & Spencer and Pets at Home that her changes to employers’ National Insurance contributions will hurt people in need of flexible, part time jobs.
