Small firms could pick up business rates tab, warns Co-op boss

Co-op’s boss has urged Rachel Reeves not to bow to pressure from large companies to ease the business rates burden.

Shirine Khoury-Haq warned that small firms could pick up the tab. 

Labour’s tax reforms have been met with outcry from retailers including Tesco, Marks & Spencer and John Lewis, whose large shops will have to pay more under proposals. But Khoury-Haq cautioned Labour against ‘protecting big business’ at the cost of smaller shopkeepers.

She warned that 60,000 small retailers and 150,000 jobs are at risk if reform is not delivered in England, findings from YouGov and Opinion Matters for the Co-op suggest.

Concern: Co-op boss Shirine Khoury-Haq warned that 60,000 small retailers and 150,000 jobs are at risk if reform is not delivered in England

Tesco and others have argued big shops are ‘anchor tenants’ and people would be less willing to visit town centres without them. 

The FT reported that Reeves planned to exclude big shops from the higher rate in response to the backlash.

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