The business rates bust-up as retailers hand back cash

Supermarkets and other stores that had come under fire for accepting a business-rates holiday have given the money back. Matthew Partridge reports

B&M Bargains shop
Business rates relief for B&M looked “obscene”
(Image credit: © B&M)

Until last week UK supermarkets had behaved like “brothers in arms”, says Sam Chambers in The Sunday Times. They “uniformly” rebuffed calls to return the “contentious £2bn-plus tax windfall” that they had received from the Treasury’s 12-month business rates holiday, “despite continuing to pay dividends”. However, last week Tesco declared that it would return the £585m it had been given. This triggered a “domino effect”, with Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, and B&M following suit.

Despite most of the supermarkets now pretending that they have been considering returning the cash “for some time”, it was only Tesco’s action that forced their hand, says Ben Marlow in The Daily Telegraph. Even Tesco doesn’t really deserve any praise since its decision came as a result of a “fierce and sustained” public backlash.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri