Retail, leisure and hospitality firms across England are facing a £2.66billion ‘cliff edge’ when a pandemic-era tax break ends next April, experts warned.
Shops, pubs, hotels, restaurants, cinemas and gyms will be among those to be hit when a 75 per cent discount on business rates finishes.
Data analysis by real estate consultancy Altus Group showed 252,414 eligible properties receive the relief up to a cap of £110,000 per business.
The annual cost of the scheme totals £2.41billion – a sum that will now be borne by those firms.
At the same time, headline business rates will go up in line with inflation, adding £250m to rates bills for the sector, according to Altus. That will leave firms facing a ‘double whammy’ totalling £2.66billion, it calculated.
Hit hard: Retail, leisure and hospitality firms across England are facing a £2.66billion ‘cliff edge’
Alex Probyn, at Altus Group, said: ‘The Chancellor must prevent a cliff edge for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors at her upcoming Budget.’
Probyn said Reeves must ‘lower the burden already placed on our high streets’.
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