M&S and John Lewis bosses press Healey to ease retail's tax burden before the Budget

Stuart Machin's language is harsher than his request. Writing in the Daily Mail, he said of Labour's last two budgets: "They were a disaster. Britain needed a plan for growth and got a pile of new taxes and regulations instead. I know money is tight." ^[3] He then set the limit himself. "I'm not asking the chancellor to rip up his fiscal rules, but at the very least, he should start unravelling the mistakes of the last two budgets," he wrote ^[4]. The list that follows is about regulation and trade policy ^[5].

The rates fight starts with pubs. Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, has aimed his pledge to revive high streets at tax breaks for pubs and curbs on gambling shops ^[6]. Jason Tarry objects to how that relief might be paid for. Writing in the Telegraph, the John Lewis and Waitrose chairman said a "warehouse tax" would "reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of how modern high streets work" ^[8]. He said it would hit "a far greater number of high street shops than warehouses" ^[13]. On his figures, the higher charge covers more than 11 of the group's stores for every distribution centre ^[14].

The fair objection is that the industry's figures come from the industry. Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said retailers pay, on average, "four times their fair share of rates" ^[11]. The British Retail Consortium's tax-per-pound figure is its own analysis ^[12]. Tarry's count is a different kind of number. It is a tally of his own estate, and it bears directly on where the higher charge would land ^[9].

We think the evidence supports a narrower conclusion than the bosses' wording. They are bargaining to stop retail costs rising, and Machin's concession on the fiscal rules suggests M&S, at least, does not expect the overall burden to fall ^[4]. On the record so far, the warehouse tax is an industry fear that Burnham could pay for pub relief this way, and we do not know yet whether the government is weighing it ^[7].

For a retailer setting next year's budget this quarter, that argues for planning on current rates bills. Any rise in the higher charge should be modelled as a cost on stores as well as depots ^[14]. Among the rates requests in the record, Murphy's is the one aimed at cutting a bill. He has asked that retailers be exempted from the highest business rates multiplier ^[10].