Only a total overhaul of business rates can save the flagging high street

SIR – Councils seeking to halt the takeover of high streets by charity shops (report, February 15) are looking at the wrong end of the problem.

Because of the punitive nature of business rates, which bear no relation to profitability, charity shops – which enjoy an 80 per cent exemption from business rates – are among the only stores that can still afford to operate.

It is a shame that charity shops have proliferated to the detriment of independent operators, which would add more diversity to the shopping experience. Rather than scrapping charity shop exemptions, deep cuts in business rates as part of a complete overhaul of the system are needed. Helen Elliott East Harting, West Sussex SIR – Last year, charity shops raised £270 million for good causes, including local hospice care and medical research, as well as services for vulnerable adults and children and disabled people.

Charity shops were also the largest source of volunteer opportunities in the country, helping to tackle social isolation among older people and equip young people with job skills.

While we recognise the financial difficulties facing many councils, we believe that imposing a business rate increase on charity shops would be a false economy that would increase the costs councils face in other areas.

We urge councils to reject a questionable answer to short-term financial difficulties that could have damaging long-term consequences. Robin Osterley CEO, Charity Retail Association Caron Bradshaw Chief Executive, Charity Finance Group Mike Taylor Retail Director, British Heart Foundation and five others; see telegraph.co.uk SIR – Business rates are nonsensical since they are based on the value or supposed rent for the building and do not take into account either the business income or the impact on local services. A small restaurant might occupy a much larger building than a takeaway shop, yet its revenue may be much less and it will not create the large footfall, traffic or littering problems of the smaller premises.

Large increases in business rates will surely drive many away. If demand for the properties then goes down, so will their rateable values – and we will be back where we started, having lost more shops from our towns and villages. Marion Draper Bembridge, Isle of Wight SIR – Surely the debate should not be about increases in business rates for hospitals and GP surgeries, but why they pay business rates at all.

There are costs to both the NHS and local authorities in administrating the payment and collection of these charges. If health service sites were rate-free then these costs would be saved and the money could be redirected to patient care. Roger Gentry Sutton-at-Hone, Kent