Election: Business rates top agenda as party leaders address CBI

Johnson, Corbyn and Swinson all made their election pitches to business today at the Confederation of British Industry conference in London.

The prime minister, who spoke first, pledged to reduce business rates, raise the employment allowance and extend tax cuts for small businesses. He also reversed a plan by former chancellor George Osborne to reduce corporation tax from 19% to 17% by 2020.

Cancelling the corporation tax cut would save £6bn, Johnson said. He added: “I hope you understand that it is the fiscally sensible thing to do.”

He did not expand on how a Conservative government would go about reducing business rates for high street businesses.

The BRC welcomed the announcement but said “additional fixes were necessary”.

“The Conservatives should commit to supporting investment and growth in retailers large and small,” said BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson. “Particularly as the majority of the UK’s 3 million retail workers are employed in businesses that will not benefit from the Conservative’s proposed rates cuts.”

Labour leader Corbyn unveiled plans to train 320,000 apprentices by diverting further funding employees already set aside through the apprenticeship levy.

Corbyn pledged that a Labour government would help “upskill” the UK workforce, as the economy changes to become more focused on a green economy.

He said the general election was the “last chance to tackle the climate emergency” and that the government “failed to deliver apprenticeships and failed to face up to the climate emergency”.

The Labour leader also said accusations that he is anti-business were “total nonsense”, following criticism of Labour’s plans to part-nationalise BT to deliver nationwide broadband.

The BRC said it was “encouraged by Labour’s focus on making the apprenticeship levy system fit for purpose”, but was cautious on its plans to divert 25% of funding to apprenticeships in manufacturing and construction.

“Any additional apprenticeships should not be funded from retailers’ funding pots, reducing the monies available to reskill the retail workforce during the industry’s transformation,” the BRC said.

Liberal Democrats leader Swinson said her party would go farther than Labour and the Conservatives in reducing “crippling” business rates, by introducing a levy paid by commercial landlords based on land value, which she claimed would “rescue the high street”.

She stressed that the Liberal Democrats are the only true party of business because they are the only party committed to staying in the EU.