Britain’s high streets risk being hit by a fresh wave of business closures unless Prime Minister Andy Burnham delivers immediate financial support, industry figures have warned.
The warning comes as pressure mounts on the new government to widen its support for bricks-and-mortar businesses, with retailers continuing to grapple with rising business rates, employment costs and weaker footfall.
Burnham has put reviving Britain’s high streets at the centre of his economic agenda, having previously pledged to reform business rates and deliver a “renaissance” for town centres.
However, retailers have raised concerns that the government’s initial interventions have focused too heavily on hospitality.
Nearly 32,000 pubs, social clubs and live music venues are set to receive a 20% business rates reduction from April 2027, while the Treasury has also launched an independent review into how pubs and hotels are valued for business rates.
The review, led by business rates expert Jerry Schurder, is due to report by the end of March 2027.
Retailers are pushing for similar action, arguing that shops face many of the same cost pressures but have so far been left without comparable additional relief.
The British Independent Retailers Association has urged Burnham to deliver wholesale reform of business rates across the high street rather than limiting support to selected sectors.
Bira said government support towards reducing business rates had fallen from £2.5bn in 2024 to around £900m today, with the organisation proposing that wider relief could be funded by closing the low-value import loophole and tackling VAT fraud among online sellers.
The trade body is calling for the return of a 75 per cent business rates discount for retailers, capped at £110,000, alongside a guarantee that independent retailers will not face another increase in their bills next year.
Bira chief executive Andrew Goodacre previously warned that independent retailers had already seen their rates bills rise by an average of 15 per cent this year while some out-of-town retail park businesses had benefited from falling bills.
The pressure comes ahead of the Autumn Budget, which is increasingly being viewed by the retail sector as the key test of how far Burnham intends to go with his promised overhaul of business rates.
Retailers have welcomed the Prime Minister’s renewed focus on high streets but warned that long-term regeneration schemes will have limited impact if businesses cannot afford to remain in the properties being revitalised.
The British Retail Consortium has similarly argued that business rates continue to undermine the viability of high streets and has called for the government to reduce the wider cost burden facing the sector.
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