Shopping guru Mary Portas may have delivered to No 10 her report on how to save the High Street, but how serious was the Government about wanting to cherish our independent shops?
As we report on the front page of Financial Mail this weekend (read the story on fmwf.com here), the centralised system of setting business rates lacks flexibility.
Gone is the local assessor who could judge the lie of the land rather than slap on across-the-board increases. Gone is the ability to appeal against a rise that – as Charlotte West in Bury St Edmunds has discovered – means shutting up shop.
Clearly, rates are a valuable source of revenue, much needed in the current environment. But tolerance to increases is variable: what the big multiples might be able to swallow with a bit of bleating is murderous to a family-owned business with only one or two outlets.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles should rapidly change the law, introducing flexibility to save the lifeblood of our towns.
The message from both parties in Government and the Opposition is muddled
Tags: Business rates, economic climate, Financial Mail's Business Rate Rise Campaign, Retail Industry
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