Press Releases

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has signed a letter alongside fifty retail organisations calling for to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid to reform the business rates system.

In the letter, retail organisations including the British Retail Consortium and Booksellers Association have called on the Government to put business rates at heart of the promised new economic package to boost business and investment in the UK.  

The letter asks for four fixes that would address many of the challenges posed by business rates:

New research published today by the Association of Convenience Stores has found that UK consumers are crying out for more specialist food shops and banks in their local area.

The ACS Community Barometer looks at which services the public want (and don’t want) around them, as well as how essential those services are, the impact they have on reducing loneliness, and whether those services overall have a positive impact on where they live.

Retailers and wholesalers have written to the Government raising concerns about ongoing issues with the introduction of tobacco track and trace regulations. 

The ‘track and trace’ regulations introduced on 20th May 2019 put in place a new method of tracking the sale of legitimate tobacco products through the supply chain. The regulations require retailers and wholesalers to scan the movement and record the sale of cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco through the supply chain up until the first retail outlet.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has called for greater protection for access to cash, highlighting the role that convenience stores play in offering this service to their local communities.

New figures today (22nd July) from LINK, the UK’s main cash machine network, show that cash withdrawals from ATMs declined year-on-year across the UK's nations and regions in early 2019.

Figures from the 2018 Local Shop Report show that 46% of convenience stores offer a free to use cash machine, with 16% offering a charging cash machine.

New figures published today by the Home Office have revealed that just 7.8% of crimes reported in the last year resulted in a charge or summons for offenders, down from 9.1% in the previous year.

The Crime Outcomes in England and Wales report from the Home Office outlines the different ways that reported crimes are dealt with by police. Across all crime, 44.4% of investigations result in no suspect being identified, rising to 74.4% for theft offences.

The Association of Convenience Stores has urged Environment Secretary Michael Gove MP to re-think his support for an “all-in” deposit return scheme in England and Wales.  Speaking at Kew Gardens in London today, Mr Gove outlined his support for an approach that could require retailers to take back plastic, glass, metal, HDPE bottles and other containers as part of the proposed deposit return scheme, with no limits on the size of the container that can be returned.

The Government has responded to the House of Lords Rural Economy Committee’s final report about how Government policy could strengthen rural businesses and communities.

The 2019 ACS Rural Shop Report reveals that rural convenience stores provide flexible jobs for almost 140,000 people, have invested over £271m in improving their businesses, and continue to provide a wide range of services despite slow broadband speeds and unreliable mobile connectivity.

The Low Pay Commission has visited an East of England Co-op store in Gorleston as part of its Visits Programme in Great Yarmouth. ACS supports retailers to take part in the Low Pay Commission Visits Programme to provide first hand evidence about the impact of the National Living Wage and employment costs.

A group of businesses and trade bodies representing the retail sector have written to the Home Secretary and other Ministers, calling for more to be done to tackle widespread violence and abuse against shopworkers.

ACS has given evidence to the Non-Domestic Rating Bill Committee, welcoming the move to more frequent revaluations on business rates.

The evidence session comes after the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government confirmed changes to the frequency of business rates valuations earlier this month. The next revaluation, previously scheduled for 2022, will be brought forward to 2021, with revaluations taking place every three years thereafter instead of the current five year period.