TheRetailer_Autumn_2019

NEWS FROM THE wRC

Industry body urges measures to ‘revitalise retail’ in upcoming Welsh Budget

Sara Jones Head of Policy & External Affairs welsh Retail Consortium

Developing the long-awaited retail sector enabling plan coupled with decisive action to reduce business taxes and boost consumer spending should be at the heart of the upcoming Welsh Budget, according to the retail industry. In its Budget submission - entitled Revitalising Retail - sent in September to Finance Secretary Rebecca Evans AM, the Welsh Retail Consortium (WRC) says retailers are re-inventing themselves for the future in the face of profound changes in shopping habits, weak demand and spiralling costs. Retail is Wales’s largest private sector employer, providing over 130,000 jobs. However, it is an industry in transition and recent data has shown flatlining retail sales, declining footfall, fewer shops, and a 10% drop in retail jobs on Wales’ high streets. The submission from the leading sectoral trade body comes ahead of the expected publication later this autumn of the devolved administration’s tax and spending plans for 2020-21. The 10-page paper covers business rates, new environmental charges, income tax, skills, town centres, and regulation. Specifically, the WRC is recommending: • Delivery on the previous commitment by Welsh Government to develop a retail industry enabling plan • Publication of a timetabled plan to substantially reduce the headline business rate multiplier and move to three yearly revaluations • Bolstering consumer confidence by maintaining commitment to ruling out increases in Welsh rate of income tax • Introducing a Regulatory Review Group, in light of the repatriation of powers to the Assembly following Brexit.

The business rates recommendations follow recent figures which show the Welsh business rates multiplier is at a 20-year high, and higher than the figure in both England and Scotland.

6 | autumn 2019 | the retailer