ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has responded to an inquiry led by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee on the future of UK high streets and town centres, calling on the Committee to look at ways to reduce the burden of business rates on retailers trading on high streets.

In the submission, ACS has called for a series of measures to ensure the sustainability of high streets and the ability of retailers trading on high streets to invest. Recommendations made in the submission include:

ACS has responded to the publication of a new report from consumer group Which? that warns of 60 bank branches closing every month, highlighting the role of convenience stores in continuing to provide banking services for local customers.

The report found that 2,868 branches will have closed between 2015 and the end of 2018, with Scotland, the South East and the North West seeing the most closures per region.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has responded to HM Treasury’s consultation on how the introduction of a tax or charge on plastics could be used to reduce the amount of single-use plastic.

ACS has welcomed the Welsh Government’s announcement that it will seek to work towards a UK-wide deposit return system in Wales.  ACS is calling for detailed consideration of the role that retailers can play in such a scheme, including the challenges and burdens that may arise from it.

ACS has submitted a joint response with SGF to the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee Inquiry on the ATM network, raising concerns about the impact that the removal of ATMs could have on local consumers, especially those in rural areas.

The Inquiry was launched as a result of a decision by LINK to reduce ATM interchange fees paid by banks to ATM operators and retailers by 20% over a four year period starting from July. The Inquiry is considering the impact of this decision on Scottish businesses, consumers and high streets.

The Supporting Entrepreneurship Inquiry held its second evidence session in the National Assembly for Wales on 7th March, taking evidence directly from a range of Welsh Entrepreneurs and business organisations.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has launched a new Retail Sector Council to address challenges faced by the retail industry. The group, made up of senior leaders from the industry, will be co-chaired by retail minister Andrew Griffiths MP and Richard Pennycook, chair of Fenwick and the British Retail Consortium, and former CEO at the Co-op.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has welcomed comments from the Exchequer Secretary, who said that the Government would hold LINK to account on their commitment to do ‘whatever it takes’ to protect the broad geographic spread of ATMs. 
 

ACS has welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement of the Government’s long-term plan to protect the environment, including measures to reduce plastic packaging, with specific proposals to extend the 5p charge on single use plastic bags to all retailers in England.

In the announcements made today, the government state that they “want to extend the scheme so that small retailers also charge for bags. We’ll first be looking at voluntary agreements with the industry to achieve this, before we consider making this compulsory.”

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.