Tory MPs want shop rates to be reduced after crisis

CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak is coming under pressure from Northern Conservatives to support high streets by permanently reducing business rates for retailers.

Forty-five MPs from the Northern Research Group (NRG) called for an extension of the business rates holiday to be followed by “fundamental reform” after the coronavirus pandemic.

Ahead of the Budget on Wednesday, the NRG, led by former Minister Jake Berry, said there is a need for “levelling the playing field between bricks and mortar and online retail”.

They are demanding that business rates are reduced from about 50 per cent of market rent to around 35 per cent in order to help achieve this.

“With many of our town centres hit particularly hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, now is the time for a bold move to reduce business rates nationally,” the MPs said in a letter to Mr Sunak.

“We need to make sure that once people can go shopping again, they have high streets to go back to.”

The Yorkshire Post reported on Saturday that the NRG had urged Ministers to launch a Northern recovery plan that recognises the pandemic has exacerbated the inequalities suffered in the region.

Mr Berry warned that no other region had been hit as badly by the pandemic as the North. The NRG is urging Mr Sunak to extend the £20 uplift in Universal Credit as well as business rate relief, and a reduction of VAT payments for the hospitality sector.

Separate from the Budget, Mr Sunak is considering targeting online retail giants like Amazon with a sales tax in a move that could go some way towards levelling the playing field as part of the business rates review expected later in the year.