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One of the fun if slightly surreal parts of my job is responding to members and others asking me to forecast what’s going to happen next in politics.  Such forecasts are always a bit of guesswork, and the best anyone can really do is analyse the factors at play and come up with some sort of rationale for what might happen next.  I also have a rule that if you want to know what’s likely to happen in an election, listen to the person least connected with the Westminster village where rumours and granular message crafting and media spin cloud the fundamentals of how people in the country at la

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has responded to the publication of an Environmental Audit Committee report which calls for the introduction of a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles, urging the Government to consider the impact that DRS would have on small retailers.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has welcomed an announcement from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which will ensure that everyone in the UK will be able to request high speed broadband by 2020.

In the 2017 Rural Shop Report, ACS highlighted the problems that retailers – especially the 19,000 convenience stores in rural areas - face when trying to invest in their business with substandard broadband speeds and called for the Government to deliver the Universal Service Obligation at a minimum spend of 10mbps.

ACS has written to Nicky Morgan MP, chair of the Treasury Select Committee, calling for the Committee and the Payment Systems Regulator to carefully scrutinise LINK’s plans to reduce interchange fees for ATMs.

In the letter, ACS expresses scepticism at LINK’s claims that they intend to ‘retain an extensive network of free ATMs for consumers’, as a cut in the interchange fee would inevitably lead to a decline in the number of cash machines available for consumers.

Christmas and New Years Eve often provide great opportunities for convenience store retailers to maximise their sales through seasonal products. However, there are a few things retailers should bear in mind during the autumn season. As a helping hand, ACS has produced Assured Advice Guides on ‘Preventing Underage Sales’ and ‘Selling Fireworks’. These guides provide extensive information about the laws and guidelines regarding the sale of some of the products which will be in high demand over the next few weeks.