WHITBREAD IN £35M BUSINESS RATES HIT AS IT WARNS OVER JOBS AND INVESTMENT

The owner of Premier Inn yesterday weighed into the backlash against Labour’s botched business rates reforms, warning they would hit jobs and investment.

Whitbread said the policy would cost it £35million a year from 2027, as the Government comes under more pressure to reverse the steep rates increases that many businesses face.

The boss of toy retailer The Entertainer also delivered a stinging rebuke to Labour, saying it was ‘taking a knife’ to the High Street.

Another retailer, Shoe Zone, complained that it was being battered by ‘highly adverse government fiscal policies’.

The comments add to growing anger over business rates changes announced in the Budget that will result in many firms struggling to survive as their bills rise sharply.

And while a rescue package to help pubs looks set to be announced, others affected, from hotels and restaurants to retailers, are exasperated that they may not be included.

It came as Labour’s crushing tax burden was blamed for business confidence collapsing to a three-year low, according to a survey from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Firms are warning that business rate hikes will have painful consequences.

Whitbread boss Dominic Paul said: ‘We continue to believe the proposed changes to business rates are damaging for the overall sector and will impact future investment and job creation.’

However, the group received a boost after reporting higher sales, sending its shares up 7.1 per cent, or 183p, to 2767p.

Meanwhile, Andrew Murphy, chief executive of The Entertainer, told the BBC that the business rates burden ‘does nobody any good’ and was an ‘absolute travesty’ which weighed heavily on retailers and hospitality firms.

He added: ‘We all want thriving city and town centres; we want these parts of the economy to be growing because they add to our quality of life.

‘The current government approach is basically taking a knife through all of that, which means our town centres become more challenged and our people find it more difficult to find jobs that fit in with their lives.’

Shoe Zone chairman Charles Smith said it had suffered a ‘challenging year’ due to waning consumer confidence and Budget policies.

Shares tumbled by 18.5 per cent, or 12.5p, to 55p as it reported a 68 per cent fall in profits for the year to September 27 to £3.3million and warned of a further sharp decrease over the coming year.

2026-01-13T22:20:17Z