Tesco and Co-op bosses set out plans to save the high street

Writing in the Daily Mail, Tesco boss Lewis and Co-op chief executive Murrells called on the government to cut business rates for all retailers by 20% and introduce a 2% online sales levy on the sale of physical goods.

They said: “The first measure is a reduction in rates for retailers – benefiting every shop in the UK. The second would mean the growing online sector pays 2% of what they make from online purchases of goods, to contribute to local services.”

Lewis and Murrels said the measures would be “revenue-neutral, would stimulate investments in our communities and would upgrade the outdated rates system so that all retailers (online or bricks-and-mortar) are contributing a fair sum to local taxes”.

The retail bosses said in 2018 “some 7,500 stores shut around the UK, with further closures and job losses announced this year” and called on the government to “take urgent action to help our sector”.

They also said business rates in their current form “make the UK less competitive” and at a time when “government is trying to boost the UK’s position as an investment destination cracking the problem of business rates is essential”.

Their article was published the same day that the long-awaited Treasury committee report on business rates was published.

In the report, the committee called on the government to explain why business rates have grown faster than inflation since 1990, to review all reliefs to ensure they remain necessary and criticised the slowness with which appeals were being processed.

It also said the government should “explore alternatives to address the negative aspects of this tax” and have prepared a consultation on the issue by the spring statement in 2020.