Over 5,500 small business owners from across Britain have signed an open letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, calling for an urgent review of the upcoming business rates revaluation, warning that it could force thousands of businesses to close.
The letter, organised by Rupert Lowe MP, has been signed by pub landlords, cafe owners, shopkeepers and local employers who say they are already at breaking point after a decade of rising costs and economic shocks.
It calls on Rachel Reeves to undertake an urgent review of the impact of the revaluation on small businesses and to introduce meaningful mitigation to prevent widespread closures.
Commenting on the response, Rupert Lowe MP said, “The scale of the response speaks for itself. Over 5,500 businesses, and the number continues to grow. Viable, hard-working firms that have been ground down year after year and are now being pushed too far.
Business rates punish physical presence. They punish community businesses. And unless the Chancellor acts quickly, we will see permanent closures on high streets across the country. It will be apocalyptic, I promise you that.”
Mr Lowe wrote:
Dear Chancellor,
We are business owners – pubs, cafes, shops and local employers – who have kept going through a brutal decade.
We’ve dealt with rising rents, soaring energy bills, higher insurance, inflation, staffing pressures, Covid debt, and additional tax. We adapted, borrowed, cut our own wages and worked longer hours just to stay open.
Now we’re facing a business rates revaluation that, for many of us, will be the final straw.
Business rates are a fixed cost we can’t avoid. We can’t move online or relocate to a warehouse. We trade from real premises, on real high streets, serving real communities.
We are being punished for doing so.
This is about survival. For many businesses, even a modest rise means slashing staff, cutting hours, raising prices, or closing altogether.
We’re asking for fairness and common sense.
Please carry out an urgent review of the impact of the business rates revaluation on small businesses and put proper mitigation in place.
If our businesses go, they will not come back.
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