Retail Consortium calls for business rates reform

Retailers and business groups are making a last-gasp push to persuade George Osborne, the current government's Chancellor of the Exchequer, to use next week’s Autumn Statement to reform business rates and offer relief on the controversial tax.

The British Retail Consortium has written to industry figures asking them to send letters to their local MPs about the need to reform business rates, while key business groups including the CBI and the Federation of Small Businesses have put the controversial tax at the top of their Autumn Statement wishlist