When Rishi Sunak announces the Budget on Wednesday, high street businesses will be listening for the announcement that he is planning to extend the “business rates holiday” – surely the most 2021 holiday you can have – which is currently set to end in April.
The holiday is likely to continue for now, but even coupled with “restart grants” it will only buy a little more time for a high street still suffering deep, long-term problems. For businesses to have the confidence to invest in a more hopeful post-pandemic period, they will need to feel less doomed in the present and this rests partly on whether or not Sunak can find a way to reduce business rates in the autumn.
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month