Business rates will kill high streets, says Next boss

‘There are lots of our shops where we pay higher business rates than we do rents’

MORE high street shops will have to close if Philip Hammond refuses to reform business rates, a leading Tory peer and head of the Next fashion chain has warned.

Lord Wolfson said the tax on commercial property has not been updated to reflect the increasing popularity of online shopping and needs changing.

The peer, who is chief executive of Next, called on the Government to reform business rates which he says are accelerating at the same rate as high street shops close. The Daily Telegraph has been running a campaign for the past four years called Reinventing the High Street to raise awareness about its decline.

Mr Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has repeatedly made clear he does not intend to ease shops’ tax burden by reforming business rates, which raise £30billion a year for the government and local authorities.

Demand for retail space has fallen to its lowest level since the last recession.

In an interview with ITV News, Lord Wolfson said: “The one thing that I think the Government must do is make rates more responsive to today’s reality.” He suggested that business rates should be recalibrated, rather than cut, so that successful retail locations shoulder the greatest burden.

Lord Wolfson said he did not know how many of the 530 Next stores would be able to stay open. “There are lots of our shops where we pay higher rates than we do rents,” he said.

A Government spokesman said: “We’ve introduced more than £10billion of business rate support to help our high streets, so many small businesses now pay no rates at all.

“But we know there’s still a lot to do, and that’s why we’ve appointed a panel to develop new solutions to the challenges high streets are facing.”