Spreadsheet Phil is killing the high street

AS the man who tried to abolish the penny piece and hike National Insurance on the self- employed, Philip Hammond’s reputation for having a political tin ear is well-documented.

But if further proof was needed of the Chancellor’s lack of judgment, consider Exhibit A: his letter to the treasury select committee in which he refuses point blank to consider reform of business rates.

Absurdly, he claims to have ‘delivered businesses’ key asks’ about rate reform and defends this crippling tax as ‘less distortionary’ than others. How, then, does Mr Hammond explain the howls of pain from firms large and small across Britain documented by the Mail’s Save Our High Streets campaign this week? Or the authoritative report from Bill Grimsey, the former boss of Iceland and Wickes, which concludes rates are a disaster for high street shops?

And how does he explain the overwhelming evidence that rates are destroying our high streets, with 60,000 shops going bust in the last four years and 50,000 job losses in the last six months?

Indeed, the evidence of boarded-up shops and hollowed out communities is there for anyone to see. And as we report today, even independent retailers in Mr Hammond’s affluent Weybridge constituency in Surrey are feeling the pain. Has he not noticed the misery in his own backyard?

The Chancellor keeps claiming he’s going to act against online retailers – who pay a fraction of the tax of their bricks-andmortar competitors – so why doesn’t he just get on with it?

But not only is he failing to act, he’s actively making matters worse. As we reported yesterday, the Valuation Office Agency is trying to rake in another £200million by forcing shops and pubs with an indoor cash machine to pay extra tax.

If the courts rule in the quango’s favour, cash machines will inevitably be ripped out, making it even harder for shoppers to get their hands on their money and further diminishing town centres, especially in the poorest parts of Britain where the banks departed long ago. In truth, Mr Hammond is more of an accountant than a politician, and one who has failed to provide proper contingency funds to prepare for leaving the EU.

But then this is a man who has undermined our negotiations week after week while encouraging wolf-cries from big business about Brexit – tactics learned from the architect of Project Fear, George Osborne.

Not content with damaging Britain’s EU strategy, he now seems determined to let the high street wither and die.