News

The Government has received approval from the Supreme Court to appeal a £300 million court dispute over business rate bills for cash machines outside shops.

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is set to challenge a ruling from the Court of Appeal which confirmed that through the wall ATMs should not be subject to a separate business rates assessment.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has responded to a new report from the Resolution Foundation which examines the extent of low pay across the economy.

The ‘Low Pay Britain’ report notes that the number of low-paid workers across Britain fell by almost 200,000 last year, including over 130,000 women and 120,000 people aged 21-30 (despite under 25s not being legally entitled to the NLW).

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) welcomes the Home Office’s announcement that charges for calls to the 101 police non-emergency number will be dropped.

Currently, callers to the 101 number are connected to their local police force or a force of their choice at a cost of 15p a time. Today’s announcement (28^th May) means that the number will be free of charge to call for all members of the public from April 2020.

ACS has produced new guidance to support retailers prepare for the F-Gas service ban which comes into effect on 1^st January 2020. 

The EU Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulation (also known as the EU F-Gas Regulation), will ban the use of refrigerants with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 2,500 or more in certain refrigeration units. It will also ban refrigeration technicians from servicing these units.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is calling on retailers to fill in an online template to help them respond to the Home Office’s call for evidence on violence and abuse against shop staff.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) welcomes launch of the Great British High Street (GBHS) Awards 2019. The Government-run awards, in partnership with Visa, celebrate the nation’s leading high streets and recognise local achievements.

Entries for the GBHS Awards 2019 opened today (23^rd May) and a selection of 40 shortlisted finalists will be chosen by an independent judging panel and are eligible to win up to £15,000 for their local community.

ACS has given evidence to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee outlining the challenges to the future of the Post Office Network and the convenience retailers that host them.

In a one-off evidence session of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee’s inquiry into the Post Office network, ACS urged the committee to consider the impact of increasing wage costs and changing consumer shopping habits.

ACS is encouraging all convenience store retailers that sell tobacco to apply for the codes they need to comply with track and trace regulations.

The regulations require retailers to have an Economic Operator Identifier Code (registered to their business) and a Facility Identifier Code (for each of their stores) in order to purchase compliant cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco products from 20th May 2019.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is calling on retailers to fill in an online template to help them respond to the Home Office’s call for evidence on violence and abuse against shop staff.

New research from the University of Bristol has found that two thirds of the cash machines that have started to charge customers in Bristol are located in some of the area's most deprived communities.

The research found that bank branches and free cash machines were concentrated in the more affluent parts of Bristol, while more deprived areas only had access to machines that were not run by banks, many of which had begun charging since October 2018.