Tax bills to blame for death of the high street, Waterstones boss says

by · Mail Online

The boss of Waterstones has blamed the death of the high street on 'egregiously large' tax bills.

James Daunt said his physical bookshops have a direct tax online stores don't have - leading to emptier city centres.

He said the 'tax on employment' makes it very expensive for retailers to keep their in-person shops open.

Mr Daunt claimed he could name one hundred places where Waterstones is the last 'really big retailer' on the high street except for a Greggs.

The managing director went on to say his staff can't get jobs easily anywhere else.

James Daunt said his physical bookshops have a direct tax online stores don't have - leading to emptier city centres
The boss of Waterstones blamed the death of the high street on 'egregiously large' tax bills
He said the 'tax on employment' makes it very expensive for retailers to keep their in-person shops open

Speaking to The Telegraph, he said Watersones is the only big retailer to stay in places such as Newport, Gwent, or Barrow-in-Furness.

Retailers say prime city centre locations are subject to higher taxes than warehouses further out, which encourages them to close down and move online.

Last week, Sainsbury's said that half of its tax bill goes towards business rates, which is equal to around £500m.

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Sainsbury's boss backs Britain's farmers as he warns inheritance tax raid threatens UK food security

 Mr Daunt has in the past said Amazon shares some of the blame and slammed the retailer as a 'money making devil'.

But now he thinks of it a a 'friend;' because it sells 'all the boring books'. This means Waterstones no longer has to stock driving test books or manuals.

Mr Daunt said Waterstones is 'chugging along fine'.

It comes after the boss of Sainsbury's backed farmers in a fresh warning that the Chancellor's inheritance tax raid threatens food security.

Simon Roberts was the first major supermarket boss to speak out amid fears that changes to farm inheritance rules could harm the country's ability to grow its own food.

He said: 'British farmers work incredibly hard to make sure that they can provide the foods that everyone wants to buy, that are British produced.'

'I would urge the Government to work closely with farmers to make sure they listen to their concerns, because we need a resilient, successful, productive food system to make sure that we're producing what we need here.'

Simon Roberts (pictured) is the first major supermarket boss to speak out amid fears that changes to farm inheritance rules could harm the country's ability to grow its own food.
The Government announced in the Budget that inheritance tax will be charged at 20per cent on farms worth more than £1 million. (Pictured, Chancellor Rachel Reeves)

Labour must 'listen to them and try and find a solution,' the head of the UK's second largest grocer urged.

Farmers have already warned that ending the practice of allowing them to pass on their estates without inheritance tax would cause many businesses to collapse.

And now there are worries this could lead to empty shelves and cause customers to fork out more for their weekly shop.

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The Entertainer toy chain axes two new stores after NI hikes in Rachel Reeves' tax bomb Budget

The Government announced in the Budget that inheritance tax will be charged at 20per cent on farms worth more than £1 million.

This outraged the agricultural sector, with unions warning farmers were considering 'military' action - including a sewage strike.

Mr Roberts' remarks came as he warned his business faces a 'barrage of costs' after the Chancellor's tax raid.

The hike in National Insurance contributions (NICs) will cost his firm £140m.

The Entertainer toy shop chain also announced its scraping of two new stores after Chancellor Rachel Reeves said employer's National Insurance Contribution's (NIC) would be raised during her tax bomb budget.

In Labour's first budget in power since 2009, Ms Reeves revealed that the NIC rate would face a sharp 1.2 per cent rise to 15 per cent, with the threshold at which employers begin paying the tax almost halving to just £5,000.

Discussing halting his company's expansion plans, The Entertainer's Chief Executive Andrew Murphy said that last week's budget was to blame and also revealed that the firm would be implementing a hiring freeze at its head office.

The Entertainer is just the latest in a growing list of high street retailers who have expressed their ire with Ms Reeves' tax hikes, with the heads of both Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer hinting that grocery prices may rise as a result.

The government has defended its plans though, saying that it needed to 'desperately restore economic stability' off the back of successive NIC cuts under previous Conservative Chancellors.