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Retail, leisure and hospitality businesses across England face a £2.66 billion “cliff edge” when a pandemic-era tax break ends next April, experts have warned.
Shops, pubs, hotels, restaurants, cinemas and gyms will be among those to benefit when the 75 per cent discount on business rates ends.
Data analysis by property consultancy Altus Group showed 252,414 eligible properties receive the relief up to a limit of £110,000 per business.
The annual cost of the scheme amounts to £2.41 billion, a sum that will now be borne by those companies.
At the same time, overall business rates will rise in line with inflation, adding £250m to the sector’s rates bills, according to Altus. That will leave businesses facing a “double whammy” totaling £2.66bn, he estimated.
Hard blow: Retail, leisure and hospitality businesses across England face £2.66bn ‘cliff edge’
Alex Probyn, of Altus Group, said: “The Chancellor must prevent the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors from going over the edge in her next budget.”
Probyn said Reeves must “reduce the burden already on our high streets.”
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