Exclusive: British Chambers of “The balance of tax incentives are strongly skewed towards the digital over the physical, and the large over small, and if you’re serious about high streets that needs somehow rebalancing,” he said. Calling on Burnham to follow through with Labour’s manifesto promise to “replace” the business rates system, Haldane said “some levelling of the playing field” was needed to help smaller operators who faced soaring costs and evaporating demand. “One of the reasons why high streets are dying, and some of the towns, is business rates are punitive for smaller shops,” he said. “This needs to be wrapped up with that more fundamental review of business rates and I’ll hope we see that in the budget. The prime minister has made town centres a top priority after years of decline that have left many hollowed-out, with shops closed, buildings boarded up and once-busy hubs sitting empty.
He is also expected to honour the promise Burnham made in June to take more small players out of the system altogether by raising the rent valuation threshold at which businesses start paying.
