British retailer body hails new government agenda as good for stores

Sandra Halliday

Опубликовано
22 июн. 2017 г.

The UK general election may have ended with no single party having overall control and the ruling Conservatives having to rein-in some of their plans, but the policies unveiled in Wednesday’s Queen’s speech have been hailed as good for retailers by the British Retail Consortium.

The BRC, which has been heavily critical of the government over its previous ‘hard Brexit’ stance and over new business property tax rises, said “retailers will be encouraged that the government is seeking to reach out to business.”

The Queen’s speech, delivered during the state opening of Parliament with the Queen reading out what the government wants to achieve during this session, included a raft of proposed new laws. These are designed to prepare the UK for a "smooth and orderly" departure from the EU. Of 27 bills, eight relate to Brexit and its implications for key industries.

The BRC’s CEO Helen Dickinson said: “It’s right to focus on Brexit. The retail industry’s biggest priority is to work alongside the government to secure a fair Brexit for consumers. This means ensuring that ordinary shoppers aren’t hit with the cost of unwanted new tariffs and the UK is able to build new trading relationships with the rest of the world in the long term.”

She said the organisation would “seek to work with the government on the new Trade Bill, which will help in the development of international trade relationships and the Immigration Bill.

The proposed laws on immigration are seen as crucial by a sector that has filled many of its jobs with EU citizens who are able to move freely between EU countries and work in each without masses of paperwork required to do so.
 
Dickinson added: “Employers throughout retail must be able to secure their current workforce and fill vacancies in the future. To do this, the government must secure the rights of EU nationals living and working in the UK at the earliest possible opportunity during the withdrawal negotiations with the EU. We will also seek to work with government to design a new immigration policy that balances the need to control numbers with businesses’ requirements for non-graduate labour to fill vacancies.”

She also said that while retailers support the introduction of the National Living Wage, “further increases must be moderate, taking into account broader economic conditions.”

And she believes it’s “encouraging that the government is moving ahead its Industrial Strategy,” making a further point about the need to “fix the broken business rates system.” While that issue wasn’t a part of the Queen’s speech, business group’s are well aware that the weakened Conservative government will need to muster all the support it can if it is to stay in power for the next five years and is unlikely to introduce unpopular policies while potentially back-pedalling on some existing legislation.