The Federation of Independent Retailers (The Fed) has called on the chancellor to back small businesses ahead of the autumn Budget.
The Fed warned of shop closures and job losses if this does not happen, referencing a survey of its membership in which 52% of respondents said they would be cutting back their workforce in response to fiscal challenges.
Hetal Patel, The Fed’s national president, said: “The Fed fully supports the chancellor’s growth agenda and believes that retail should be at the heart of it, given that independent retail employs over 400,000 people and retail provides about £100 billion to UK GDP annually.
“However, our members continue to have great concerns about the current economic outlook in general and some of the extra costs that businesses have been forced to pay since the financial year began in April.
“While we recognise the fiscal challenges the government faces, we hope that the financial pressures faced by independent retailers can be controlled as much as possible in the Budget.”
In the letter to Rachel Reeves, Patel called for the government to continue ensuring that small retail businesses are protected with relief.
He added that more needs to be done to tackle retail crime, which continues to be an ongoing problem for independent retailers.
“We are particularly concerned that there is a lack of resourcing for trading standard officials employed by local councils. They play a vital role ensuring the health of the high street by tackling the illicit trade of tobacco and other goods, and face new pressures linked to tobacco licensing, as well as the single use vape and generational smoking bans,” Patel said.
Finally, Patel criticised the increase in the National Living Wage and National Insurance contributions.
He said: “While our members are responsible employers and we support the existence of the National Living Wage to reward work, we feel it should be set at an affordable rate so our members can continue to provide the employment necessary for our businesses to thrive and to support the government’s wider growth agenda.”
