// M&S wants an overhaul of business rates to help offset rising fuel costs as Stuart Machin calls it ‘daylight robbery’
// Marks & Spencer is expected to see its energy bill rise by £100 million next year, just after profits fell last week
Marks & Spencer is expected its energy bills to rise by £100 million next year, as chief executive Stuart Machin launched a plea to the Chancellor to help the high street.
The projected increase in energy costs follows a £40 million increase this year, which has eaten into the retailer’s profits.
Last week the retailer revealed profits had fallen by almost a quarter after higher costs and pressure in household budgets hit the bottom line.
Machin wants Jeremy Hunt to slash business rates, which are widely seen as another significant burden on retailers, which are due to rise 10% next year, leaving companies to pay an extra £2.7 billion in total.
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Machin branded the current levy ‘daylight robbery’ and said to This is Money that he’s committed to having great shops.
“While others go online, or go bust, we are investing heavily in stores [to complement the digital shop].’
He described the M&S store at Marble Arch as ‘decrepit’, which has been earmarked for redevelopment with a flurry of obstacles.
Machin has criticised the deterioration of Oxford Street in the past, where the store is situated, as a ‘dinosaur district’ of vacant units and ‘tacky candy shops’.
He stressed that M&S and fellow bricks-and-mortar retailers, which employ millions, are at a disadvantage compared with online shops.
“Running a shop costs a lot more than running an online business, and a large part of that is down to business rates which have zero link to profits or, indeed, reality,’ he said.
“Rates have gone up by the same amount as retail property values have gone down. Frankly, it’s daylight robbery. It’s why high streets and city centres are increasingly full of vacancies and dodgy shops.”
Bosses at some of the UK’s leading retailers – including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Greggs and Iceland have also called on chancellor Jeremy Hunt to freeze business rates in the autumn statement, due to be announced this Thursday.
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