Despite promising to ease the cost of living crisis, no new measures were introduced in the Queen’s speech, after Tesco chair John Allan called for a windfall tax to ease rampant inflation.
Announcing its legislative programme for the year ahead, the government introduced 38 bills in the Queen’s speech. However, Boris Johnson poured cold water on taking any immediate steps to ease the burden of skyrocketing inflation.
The prime minister acknowledged families were “anxious about the future” and promised to help “where we can” in the coming months, but he argued any steps to ease the crisis would have to be balanced in order to keep public finances on a “sustainable footing”.
Tesco chair John Allan had earlier criticised Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak for failing to act to protect consumers, saying the country was facing “real food poverty for the first time in a generation”, which is being exacerbated by the government’s failure to act on soaring energy prices.
“There’s an overwhelming case for a windfall tax on profits for those energy producers, fed back to those most in need of help with energy prices,” Allan told Radio 4’s Today programme.
Allan also criticised Sunak for raising National Insurance when many households were already faced with their budgets being squeezed.
“If I’d been the chancellor, I wouldn’t have done it,” Allan said. “It’s hitting people on modest incomes disproportionately and it’s absolutely the wrong time to do it. If I were in government, I’d roll that back.
“I was hearing, for the first time in many years, of customers saying to checkout staff: ‘Stop when you get to £40’,” he added, saying Tesco customers had been rationing food prices. “They don’t want to spend a penny over that, as opposed to having everything checked out”.
The British Retail Consortium welcomed in principle the government announcement of the non-domestic rating bill – which will shorten the business rates revaluation cycle from five to three years from 2023.
However, BRC business and regulation director Tom Ironside said the announcement “falls well short” of the kind of fundamental business rates reform the sector has been demanding for years.
“We welcome efforts to increase the frequency and efficiency of revaluations, to allow the rateable value of properties to better reflect market rates,” he said.
“Nonetheless, the failure to reduce the overall burden of business rates means the bill falls well short of the fundamental reform that is key to unlocking retail investment across the country. Retailers account for 5% of the economy but pay 25% of business rates, this is neither fair nor sustainable.”
As part of the proposed Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, landlords will also be forced to rent out empty shops in a bid to regenerate high streets.
One landlord criticised the proposal as vague, questioning a lack of detail about how the government will legally enforce such a move.
They said: “It’s all well and good to say this but how will it actually work? What legal framework will be in place to enforce it? What rent will the landlord of this unit be paid and who will ensure that the new occupiers can afford to pay that? In the event of a default, will landlords be protected? It’s a mess.”
The Association of Convenience Stores welcomed the measures. Chief executive James Lowman said: “We await further detail of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill and how the government intends to legislate to achieve the missions set out in the white paper on areas like crime, health and connectivity, and will continue to engage with the Department for Communities and Local Government on how local shops can play their part in leveling up the UK.”
The government also announced what it called the “Brexit Freedoms Bill” designed to “seize the opportunities” of the UK leaving the EU to “enable economic growth”.
While the main purpose of the legislation appears to be to allow the government to amend, repeal or replace large amounts of retained EU law, it stops short of tearing up the Northern Ireland protocol.
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