Make the online giants cough up

CAN we afford to lose nearly a million retail jobs by 2025, as predicted? The Government has reacted – by covering its ears and shouting la la la.

The last business rates review by Sajid Javid was a shambles and deemed “too difficult” by Javid himself to deal with, so was kicked into the long grass again.

The Government must recognise that taxing retailers differently is reckless. They are taxing the high street’s diminishing cake, but not the rising online retail cake.

It’s deluded. Even the big boys such as M&S are closing stores, not because rents are too high, but because rates are too high.

I am for a transactional tax at the point of purchase for both online and physical retail.

The solution is not difficult – collect from the online giants, who currently pay very little taxation in the UK. They can’t get away with it any more. We can get rid of rates altogether, raising extra funds for the Chancellor’s coffers, allowing him to find the cash that the NHS desperately needs.

Inactivity will also just lead to more and more vans chugging out fumes, to deliver millions of products, often of low value.

MPs will happily campaign against wood burners, but not prioritise this environmental catastrophe which is already happening. They need to act now and tax accordingly.