Alliance Boots, Tesco and Marks & Spencer are among a wave of big name retailers set to criticise the business rates system when they give evidence to the retail inquiry next week.

The Select Committee for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which is leading the inquiry into the UK retail sector, will hear the third round of evidence on Tuesday.

Major retailers including Alliance Boots, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, The Co-operative and the British Property Federation will give evidence on the state of the high street.

Alliance Boots said the issue of business rates was, “the most significant challenge to operating successfully on high streets and town centres”

The health and beauty retailer added that the two-year postponement of the rates revaluation to 2017, which was announced last year, “comes at a difficult time for many struggling retailers”.

In the run up to the Budget, Retail Week, alongside the BRC, lobbied the Government to tackle the unfair business rates system through the Fair Rates for Retail campaign, which included switching the calculation to an annual estimate of CPI.

Retailers’ business rates bills have soared by more than £500m over the past two years.

The Government has committed to reviewing the calculation mechanism when fiscal consolidation plans have been implemented.

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