Autumn Statement: Business rate cap letdown

Retailers today said the Chancellor’s plan to cap business rates did not go far enough.

George Osborne dashed the sector’s hope of a full-scale review of the rates, blamed for decimating British High Streets. Instead the rises will be capped at 2 per cent, rather than being linked to inflation.

Helen Dickinson, Director General of the British Retail Consortium, said the move was welcome, but added: “In the longer term, reform of the business-rates system is still essential.”

The Chancellor is also handing tax relief to new occupants of vacant properties. For the next two years every premises with rateable values up to £50,000 will get discounts worth £1000 off bills.

The administrators of Blockbuster today said business rates had partly contributed to the video rental chain’s collapse.

Moorfields Corporate Recovery also confirmed 62 more stores are to close, with the loss of another 427 jobs, and that it had still not found a buyer for the rest of the company’s last 91 stores, which could lead to 808 more job losses.