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Retailers warn of price rises if Autumn Budget fails to deliver

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Retailers warn of price rises if Autumn Budget fails to deliver

Act now, or prices will keep on rising. That’s the message from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) to Chancellor John Healey ahead of tomorrow’s Autumn Budget.

The warning comes as the latest figures from the BRC and NielsenIQ (NIQ) show shop price inflation rose to 2.1% in October, up from 1.4% in September.

The BRC’s CEO Helen Dickinson said: “Retailers cannot endlessly swallow higher business rates, employment costs, energy bills, and packaging taxes. Without a change of course, October’s jump in inflation is only the beginning.

She added: “Our recipe for the Chancellor is simple. Slash employment costs. Cancel the 3.5% business rates increase. Remove shops from the high-value surtax. Otherwise, households will end up paying the price.”

The Budget comes as new data from BTG reveals that financial distress has hit a 20-year high – currently experienced by 738,000 British businesses. Meanwhile, 86% of small businesses believe the Budget could cause further damage to their finances and growth prospects, according to research from Novuna Business Finance.

Jacyn Heavens, CEO of Epos Now, said: “Every day we see what running a small business in the UK really looks like right now. It’s the café owner opening up at 6am and doing the books at midnight. It’s the shopkeeper skipping their own wage so they can pay their staff on time.

“These aren’t faceless businesses. They’re the people who know their customers by name, sponsor the local football team and give young people their first job. And right now, many of them are exhausted.


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