Labour the party for Business 🤣28 Aug 2025 10:38
“Britain’s largest food suppliers have warned Rachel Reeves that her £1.7bn business rates raid risks driving some of them out of business.
Food and Drink Wholesale UK, which represents wholesalers selling produce to UK convenience stores, said on Wednesday that the Chancellor’s rates overhaul would land them with costs they “cannot afford” and push some suppliers “to the brink of viability”.
The trade body, formerly known as Federation of Wholesale Distributors (FWD), sent the letter on behalf of bosses of 13 of Britain’s biggest wholesalers, including Booker Group, Bestway Wholesale and Bidfood.
“We agree that reforming business rates is critical to stimulating growth in the economy. However, the Government’s proposals, designed to ‘protect the high street’, are placing disproportionate pressure on wholesalers,” the group said in a letter to the Chancellor.
It is the latest in a series of warnings about the planned business rates changes, with retail giants including Tesco and Sainsbury’s having already voiced concerns over the reforms.
Under the shake-up, Ms Reeves is preparing to increase business rates on larger premises, which will include warehouses, department stores and supermarkets, and lower them for smaller independent retailers.
The Treasury has argued that the changes are about “creating a fairer business rates system to protect the high street”.
The Chancellor initially suggested the aim was to target online goliaths such as Amazon, which have large warehouses. In Labour’s manifesto ahead of the election, it said it wanted to “level the playing field between the high street and online giants”.
However, the wholesalers said they would also be hit by the changes, despite operating on “significantly lower margins”.
They also said the reforms would further fuel food inflation, saying: “If wholesalers are caught by these changes, they will be forced to pass the costs on to local businesses, undermining the very goal of redressing the imbalance between high street retailers and online giants who often minimise their UK tax liabilities by being based abroad.”
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