ACS calls for support for growth and investment from Autumn Budget

The ACS has called on the chancellor to support growth and investment in the convenience channel in a submission to the Autumn Budget.

The Budget, which will be Labour’s first major fiscal event, takes place on 30 October, and will see the government present its plans for the economy, including spending and taxation.

ACS has made its submission to the Treasury urging the chancellor to create the conditions that enable retailers to invest in their businesses.

The submission outlines the challenges faced by retailers in the past few years, including rising inflation, soaring energy costs, a tightening labour market and a surge in theft and violence towards shopworkers. It also including recommendations to ensure retailers can raise more revenue for the treasury while fostering economic stability and growth.

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Recommendations made in ACS’ Autumn Budget submission include:

1. Increase the employer NICs threshold to £185 and uprate it each year
2. Maintain small business rate relief and the 75% retail and hospitality relief
3. Introduce an alternative rating methodology for online distribution warehouses
4. Ring fence revenues from the upcoming vaping products levy to fund local enforcement

Despite these obstacles, ACS said, convenience retailers have shown “remarkable resilience”, investing more than a billion pounds in their businesses in the past year, and demonstrating their commitment to continuing to provide essential goods and services to their communities.

ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “Convenience retailers have weathered the storm of increasing costs, higher inflation and spikes in their energy bills. It is important that we continue to support these businesses to invest, as they are essential to local growth and significant contributors to the UK economy. Much of the investment being made in stores is in a wider range of services, which bolsters their role as part of the universal basic infrastructure that every successful community needs.”

The full Budget submission is available on the ACS website here.

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