ACS Blog

In recent weeks, the Chancellor has come under fire from all sides over the impact of the business rates revaluation, with many claiming that the impact on their businesses could be catastrophic. In the convenience sector, as with many others, the reality is that there will be both winners and losers when the new rates take effect in April.

We’ve had a great response to our first Rural Shop Report, which takes data from our flagship Local Shop Report to paint a picture of the 19,128 rural convenience stores serving villages and surrounding areas.  It was about a year ago that we first took the idea of producing this report to the Rural Shops Alliance, and while sadly that organisation has now folded, we saw no reason not to share the story and the statistics about rural shops with a wider audience. 

What does today’s speech by Theresa May, outlining the UK’s approach to Brexit, mean for the convenience store sector?  The markets appear to have responded positively, I expect because they now have a bit more certainty (or at least some sort of clue) about what the UK’s future relationship with Europe might look like.  Is our sector similarly encouraged?

We’re seeing a lot in the papers about business rates, as we build up to the new financial year starting in April when businesses in England and Wales will start paying rates based on the latest revaluation. I want to start by reminding you of a very positive announcement at last year’s budget, one that has been neglected a little in some recent press coverage. All single site businesses with a rateable value of under £12,000 will now pay no business rates.

Some of you may have seen an excellent new report by the Local Data Company which discusses whether we are reaching saturation point for the number of convenience stores in UK towns.

There’s plenty of discussion in the media about business rates policy, with most retail and wider business groups agreeing there needs to be a change to the way rates are calculated and collected (see businesses organisations agreed position here). But what specifics should we expect, or hope for, when the Chancellor stands up on Wednesday?

Well, that went well.  Not many organisations can put defeating the government on their CV, but after yesterday’s Commons vote against devolving Sunday trading laws, ACS, Usdaw and the rest of the Keep Sunday Special campaign can claim this rare distinction.  There will be plenty of time to reflect on the details of the campaign, and plenty of people to thank for their contribution, but I wanted to write about the role that individual retailers can play in making real change in politics.

Today’s publication of the government’s response to their public consultation is a chance to see their analysis all the evidence that has been put forward by groups like us, and also those who favour longer Sunday opening hours.  There’s a team in the Department for Business running this consultation, which launched over six months ago, analysing responses and reviewing the evidence.

Business rates have dominated the retail industry’s reaction to the Autumn Statement this week, and you can see what we have said here.  I wanted to use this blog to talk about another issue, buried deep in the papers accompanying the Chancellor’s speech: tobacco licensing.  The Autumn Statement includes a commitment to consult on whether to introduce a licensing system for vendors of tobacco, which could include local shops.  The government say (and I believe them) that they approach th

We heard about George Osborne’s promise to devolve business rates to local authorities while waiting to start our fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference, just yards from where the Chancellor was speaking. This looked like another Osborne bombshell, hot on the heels of his planned devolution of Sunday trading and announcement of a national living wage of over £9 by 2020.