British Retail Consortium calls for retail business tax break on eve of Autumn Budget

To help keep prices lower

The British Retail Consortium has urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to introduce a relaxation to business rates bills for all retail properties at the Budget tomorrow (30 October) to allow some price easing from high street stores.

This comes as Shop Price index recorded 0.8% deflation in the first week of October, a slowdown from deflation of 0.6% in the previous month. This was below the three-month average rate of -0.6%, and meant shop price annual growth dropped to its lowest rate since August 2021. "October saw shop prices fall marginally further into deflation for the third consecutive month," said Helen Dickinson, CEO of the BRC. What to expect at the upcoming Autumn Budget Dickinson added that this was something households would "welcome the continued easing of price inflation". However, she war...