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Chancellor Rachel Reeves' planned business rates shake-up could put 120,000 jobs at risk, retail and hospitality groups have warned. Ahead of her Autumn Budget on November 26, financial experts have been predicting tax rises to help fill a £40 billion hole in the public finances. One will be a reform for business rates to the tune of £1.7 billion. Read more: UK households face paying just £84 for TV license under one condition Due to come into effect in April 2026, it will target around 5,000 large commercial properties worth more than £500,000. The British Retail Consortium and UK Hospitality have warned that this could lead to the closure of 500 sites, putting over 100,000 jobs at risk. Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: "Introducing a business rates surtax would only add to inflationary pressures, leading to store closures and job losses." She added: "We urge the Chancellor to exempt these businesses from the surtax, helping safeguard hundreds of anchor stores and the vital jobs they sustain." Kate Nicholls, chair of UK Hospitality, that the Chancellor should "back businesses so they can develop locations where people want to live, work and invest." A Treasury spokesperson said: "We're making business rates fairer by introducing permanently lower rates for retail, hospitality and leisure from April, funded by a higher rate on less than one per cent of the most valuable business properties." It comes as Reeves has once again hinted that tax rises are coming, this time suggesting the Labour Party Government will need "sufficient headroom" to protect the UK economy. During an appearance at Fortune Magazine's global forum in Riyadh, the Chancellor appeared to acknowledge the potential for tax rises. The Chancellor said growth was a "big part" of the Budget, but added: "We are looking, of course, at tax and spending to ensure that we both have resilience against future shocks by ensuring we’ve got sufficient headroom, and also just ensuring that those fiscal rules are adhered to.” However, she promised not to break the fiscal rules, adding: “The underpinning for economic growth is stability and I’m not going to break the fiscal rules that we’ve set. "We are going to reduce that primary deficit, we are going to see debt starting to fall as a share of GDP, because we need more sustainable public finances, especially in the uncertain world in which we live today. “So, growth will be a big part of that Budget story, in a way that, frankly, I think growth has been neglected as a tool of fiscal policy in the last few years."
