High Street cuts 225,000 jobs in just five years: Reeves urged to reform business rates to halt decline

Rachel Reeves is under increasing pressure to reform business rates as figures show 225,000 High Street jobs have been lost in the last five years.

The number of employees in retail has fallen from 3.1 million to less than 2.9 million since 2019, according to analysis of official data by the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

And an Institute of Directors (IoD) survey found that for the economy as a whole, hiring intentions are at their lowest level since the height of the pandemic in 2020, following Labor’s foray into national insurance (NI ) from employers.

Retailers are suffering both from the NI raid (which they say will cost them £7bn next year and breached Labour’s manifesto) and from a business rates system which they say desperately needs reform.

At the same time, they are affected by increases in the minimum wage. The BRC maintains that without changes to the business rates system, even more jobs will be lost.

The issue has been highlighted by the Mail’s Save Our High Streets campaign.

Retailers such as Currys and Primark have already warned that increases in staff costs mean they will increasingly turn to automation.

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: ‘The Government’s promised business rates reforms give it leverage to protect future investment and it is vital that they ensure no workshop pays more as a result of these reforms.

“Without this, more stores will be forced to close, which will mean fewer retail jobs in communities across the country.”

The business rates system is a tax based on the rental value of a commercial property, meaning stores pay a premium compared to online giants such as Amazon.

Ahead of the Budget, business owners had called on the Chancellor to extend Covid-era relief plans that cut business rates bills by 75 per cent.

They also wanted to see the introduction of permanent reforms to the system that would level the playing field.

Instead, the rate reduction for hospitality and retail businesses was reduced to 40 percent.

Reeves also announced plans aimed at reducing the trading bills of most High Street shops at the expense of larger commercial premises, which will have to pay more.

The idea is to catch large warehouses used by companies such as Amazon, but it could backfire as the proposals will also affect larger brick-and-mortar stores.

Retail companies are not the only employers facing pressure to reduce labor costs.

Yesterday’s figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the number of employees across the UK fell by 35,000 in November.

And the number of vacancies fell by 31,000 to 818,000 in the three months to November, meaning there have been 29 consecutive periods of decline.

Alexandra Hall-Chen, senior employment policy adviser at the IoD, said the data “points to a worrying outlook for job creation in the UK”.