News

From today (May 5^th), the paper £5 note will be withdrawn from circulation after being replaced with the polymer £5 note. The co-circulation period for the two notes began on 13^th September 2016.

Retailers, banks and building societies do not have to accept the old £5 note after May 5^th, although some may do so at their own discretion. The Bank of England will always exchange its old-series notes.

Voting will take place today between 7:00am and 10:00pm for the local and mayoral elections.

Elections will be held in 34 councils in England, all 32 councils in Scotland and all 22 councils in Wales. In addition, six areas in England are voting for newly-created “combined local authority mayors”.

ACS has raised concerns about the levels of branded tobacco products that remain in circulation ahead of the introduction of the standardised packaging regulations on 20^th May.

Data from the Retail Data Partnership collected from around 2,500 convenience stores during the final week of March showed that:

A group of organisations including ACS has written to the three main political parties, calling for fundamental reform of the business rates system.

The group has highlighted the following issues in the letter:

ACS has called on energy regulator Ofgem to ensure that local shops and other small businesses are included in proposals to limit backbilling of electricity and gas. Currently, suppliers have signed up to voluntary agreements to only backbill domestic consumers for a maximum of 12 months.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released crime figures for the year ending December 2016 in England and Wales, revealing an 8% jump in recorded shop theft incidents.

The figures show that there were approximately 358,235 incidents of shop theft in 2016, which is over 25,000 more incidents than in 2015.  The figures support ACS’ own crime survey which also showed an increase in shop theft.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has called on the Government to ensure that councils have full discretion over the business rates relief fund announced at the Budget, and that decisions about the eligibility of retailers are made quickly to support those facing the biggest increases.