Ashley: ‘UK high street is on life support, act now on business rates’

Frasers said it supported trade body the BRC’s campaign for urgent action on rates and said the current approach undermines retailers who need relief most.

The BRC wrote to former chancellor Sajid Javid earlier this week outlining its demands, but Javid resigned yesterday after clashing with prime minister Boris Johnson and was replaced by Rishi Sunak. Javid’s departure from the government came just weeks before he was expected to unveil the Budget.

Frasers said: “With the UK high street on life support, the time for reform has long since passed. Transitional relief, in particular, is disastrous for a great many retailers and needs to be significantly modified to at least ensure the correct amount of rates are paid by the end of transitional relief periods. The current system, whereby downward transitions of just a few per cent a year mean that the correct amount is never reached or even close to, punishes those in greatest need of relief.

“Within the Frasers Group itself, we have some stores paying up to four times the rates bills they should be. This kind of pattern clearly cannot be right and is no doubt repeated widely across UK retail; it is a significant contributor to the dire straits the High Street currently finds itself in.”

In its letter, the BRC called for “fundamental reform in the medium term” and said a key way for the government “to meet its ambition to level up every part of England would be by removing downwards phasing of transitional relief”.

Since being introduced in 2017, transitional relief has cost the sector £543m by forcing retail to subsidise other industries. Businesses outside London have subsidised those in the capital to the tune of £596m over the past three years, the BRC said.