M&S chief Machin urges Healey to reverse tax burdens before Budget

Right · 2Stuart Machin, chief executive of Marks & Spencer, wrote in the Daily Mail on 10 October that the last two Budgets were "a disaster" and urged Chancellor John Healey to start unravelling their "mistakes" in his first Budget. 1 2 Right · 1Machin said he had written to Healey directly, that he was not asking the Chancellor to "rip up his fiscal rules", and that M&S faced £150million of new annual costs on top of a tax bill of around half a billion pounds. 1 Right · 1His six proposals were to scrap the Deposit Return Scheme, to ensure the Employment Rights Act does not treat normal weekend shifts as "low hours" contracts and so ban the Saturday job, to secure a food and drink deal with the EU, to reverse the cut to the National Insurance threshold, to fix business rates, and to scrap the packaging tax (Extended Producer Responsibility). 1

Right · 1Machin said the first three would not cost the Treasury anything, and argued that retail makes up around 5 per cent of the economy but pays over a fifth of all business rates, with M&S alone paying about £170million a year. 1 Right · 1He said M&S is investing over £2billion across stores, supply chain and technology over three years, but that every pound spent on new taxes is one it cannot invest. 1 Right · 1The Daily Mail reported that Healey's Budget is due on 28 October, the first of Andy Burnham's premiership, and that Rachel Reeves, the former chancellor, was sacked by Burnham. 3

Right · 1Other business figures joined the lobbying: John Lewis and Waitrose chairman Jason Tarry, writing in the Telegraph, warned that a so-called "warehouse tax" would hit more than 200 John Lewis and Waitrose stores against 18 distribution centres, and Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy earlier urged Healey not to impose it. 2 Right · 1City A.M. said there is concern in the industry that Burnham could fund business rates cuts for pubs by raising bills on warehouses, and cited British Retail Consortium analysis that retailers pay 72p in tax for every pound they make, the second-highest of any sector after hospitality. 2 Right · 1The Daily Mail also quoted Sir Martin Sorrell, who called for "real growth policies", and Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith, who urged Healey to rule out further tax rises; it noted UK borrowing costs hit a 28-year high that week and that Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey warned the Chancellor must balance the books. 3

Right · 1No government response is reported in the coverage so far. 2