Tory MPs demand rates cut to save high street shops

BUSINESS rates should be cut to help struggling shops, Tory MPs say.

With some firms paying up to 70 per cent, they want rates slashed to 40 per cent to help protect retailers across the UK.

Such a move could also help create jobs in worse- off areas.

It comes as a study shows that 77 per cent of constituencies with the highest business rate burden are in northern areas and the Midlands as the tax rate does not mirror economic performance.

The WPI Strategy think tank found that of 40 constituencies with the highest burden, 32 are in areas most in need of “levelling up” such as Sunderland Central, Great Grimsby and Leigh.

If a supermarket in Bishop Auckland, Co Durham, faced the same burden as a store in Surrey Heath, Surrey, it would pay £ 820,000 less in rates per year.

Dehenna Davison, Tory MP for Bishop Auckland, said that if businesses are to bounce back “we must look at the financial inequality presented by business rates”.

Ben Bradley, Conservative MP for Mansfield, said: “A reduction in business rates could be a lifeline for our high streets.”

The Covid- related rates holiday comes to an end next April, and the Government is consulting on ways to improve the system.