"The scale of the response speaks for itself. Over 5,500 businesses, and the number continues to grow. Viable, hard-working firms that have been ground down year after year and are now being pushed too far. Business rates punish physical presence. They punish community businesses. And unless the Chancellor acts quickly, we will see permanent closures on high streets across the country. It will be apocalyptic, I promise you that."
"We are business owners - pubs, cafes, shops and local employers - who have kept going through a brutal decade. We've dealt with rising rents, soaring energy bills, higher insurance, inflation, staffing pressures, Covid debt, and additional tax. We adapted, borrowed, cut our own wages and worked longer hours just to stay open. Now we're facing a business rates revaluation that, for many of us, will be the final straw. Business rates are a fixed cost we can't avoid."
Over 5,500 small business owners across Britain have signed an open letter to the Chancellor calling for an urgent review of the upcoming business rates revaluation and for meaningful mitigation to prevent closures. Signatories include pub landlords, cafe owners, shopkeepers and local employers who say they are at breaking point after a decade of rising costs and economic shocks. They cite rising rents, soaring energy bills, higher insurance, inflation, staffing pressures, Covid debt and additional tax, and describe adapting by borrowing, cutting wages and working longer hours. They warn that even modest rate rises will force staff cuts, reduced hours, price increases or permanent closures on high streets.
Read at London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com
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