Toy retailer boss blames rates for high street struggle

● Shopper footfall for UK has the sharpest drop in almost eight years

in a bleak first quarter of 2018, with Toys R Us and Maplin both filing for administration in February and fashion retailers such as New Look and Select embarking on radical store closure programmes. While pressures from rising inflation and the National Living Wage have hit retailers, Mr Grant said business rates remain “the elephant in the room”.

He said: “Landlords are being very realistic about their rent, but the one thing that is not negotiable are business rates.

“(The retail sector) is seeing many stores empty for long periods of time and the biggest issue is that (retailers) can’t open stores.

“Business rates are out of line now with retail turnover. Business rates are the real killer. Any increase in cost where you have flat and declining turnover is going to put pressure on the bottom line.

“The government just haven’t got it. They need to take some responsibility for the high street’s decline.”

The Entertainer has seven stores situated in Scotland.

Retailers, hospitals, pubs and schools were among those dealt a hammer blow in April last year when the first business rates revaluation for seven years left many facing crippling bill hikes.

Such has been the challenge for other retailers that company voluntary arrangements have become the go-to lifeline.

New Look has shut 60 stores through a CVA, while Carpetright is pursuing a similar strategy that could mean it closing another 81 stores.