Calls to reform the broken business rates system have grown following the collapse of Wilko.
Retail casualties and the closures of about 6,000 store sites in the past five years have prompted the industry to revive calls for reform.
Olly Tress, the boss of Oliver Bonas, the fashion and homewares chain, argues that the property tax is a “terrible laggard” for companies operating shops, pubs and restaurants and “needs to be reformed, but the government doesn’t seem to have the spine to actually do it”.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, has warned that there could be further company collapses if nothing is done to fix the system, resulting in “gap-toothed high streets”
“The government seems to tinker with reform and then claim ‘it has been done,’ ” said John Webber, head of business rates at Colliers.
The Labour Party, meanwhile, is committed to abolishing business rates and replacing them with a system that it argues is “ fit for the 21st century”.
