Retailers including Tesco, Asda, Primark and M&S are set to launch a new year campaign warning Chancellor Rachel Reeves that her plans to increase business rates for larger shops will put stores and jobs at risk.
Some of Britain’s largest retailers such as Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and B&Q have agreed to restore the Retail Jobs Alliance (RJA), which was initially launched in 2022, Sky News reported.
Insiders said that the RJA is expected to engage with the Treasury over the coming weeks to argue that a host of tax rises and regulatory changes will put investment by major retailers in economically deprived parts of the country at risk.
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The coalition aims to produce analysis revealing that many of the shops with so-called rateable values over a new £500,000 threshold are based in areas relying on retailers for employment opportunities.
The group is expected to roll out in January and is likely to include other retailers, sources have said. The RJA is said to be coordinating its plans with the British Retail Consortium.
The move follows a wave of backlash over Labour’s first fiscal Budget in October, with more than 70 retailers writing to Reeves cautioning that the “sheer scale” of the new costs on companies meant job cuts were “inevitable”.
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