Healey’s business rate tweaks won’t stop ‘hollowing out’ high street, business group warns

John Healey’s changes to high street business rates are a “sticking plaster” that will not reverse the “hollowing out” of town centres across the country, the boss of Britain s largest business group has warned. In his maiden Budget this week, the Chancellor said he would lift the threshold at which small firms receive business rates relief from £12,000 to £18,000, exempting some 70,000 more companies from the tax. He also said he would freeze business rates bills for all other retail, hospitality and leisure firms. The move, funded by a tax raid on gambling firms and a VAT crackdown on e-commerce platforms, will “help provide the funding for our pubs, cafes and shops to thrive,” the Chancellor said.  But the decision has come under fire from some of the country’s biggest business bodies who have criticised the government s failure to reform the underlying business rates system. A firm s business rates bill is calculated using the annual rental value of its premises. Labour