The Association of Convenience Stores has responded to the Chancellor's Spring Statement, warning that the impact of the Government's tax increases on retailers is already being felt, with more challenging conditions to come.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “The Chancellor again stated today that promoting business investment is central to her strategy. Unfortunately the reality is that next week’s increases in employment costs and business rates are causing our members to cut back rather than invest in their stores.”
Figures from the latest Voice of Local Shops survey of over 1,000 convenience store retailers across the UK have shown that there has been a sharp decline in net staff hours in the sector - the third lowest on record since the start of the survey in 2012.
Mr Lowman continued: “As the cost of employing colleagues rises, local shop operators are already reducing staff hours in their stores. For many businesses, there are no further staffing cuts to be made. We will see store closures and with them the loss of essential local services unless the government provides more help through investment incentives, mitigations against growing employment costs. and more business rate relief.”
After the Autumn Budget, ACS estimated that cost increases would amount to over £666m in the coming year without taking into account the additional burdens and costs of new regulations. This is the result of the reduction in business rates relief, the increase in employer National Insurance Contributions, and the increases in the National Living Wage rates.
The full Spring Statement document is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/spring-statement-2025
ACS has put together guidance for retailers on the changes that are coming into force from April, which can be found here: https://cdn.acs.org.uk/public/Briefing%20on%20changes%20from%20April%202025%20PDF.pdf
