NEWS
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4 ASIAN TRADER 17 NOVEMBER 2023
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Without addressing business
rates, the high street will
struggle to thrive, consulting
adviser to mid-market
business leaders RSM UK has
warned.
The UK’s biggest retailers
will be slapped with a £400
million increase in business
rates next year as Jeremy Hunt
looks to prioritise corporate tax
reliefs that promote invest-
ment.
“With subdued growth in
retail sales in recent months,
and as retailers continue to
grapple with increasing cost
pressures, the prospect of a rise
in business rates next year will
be crippling news for some,”
said Jacqui Baker, head of retail
at RSM.
The chancellor is under-
stood to have decided against
freezing rates for larger
retailers despite warnings that
an increase would cost jobs and
hit the high street. Business
rate bills for larger retailers
could rise 6.7% in the spring.
“Freezing business rates will
be vital for the survival of many
retailers, so it will be disap-
pointing if this isn’t on the
agenda in the Autumn State-
ment,” added Baker.
‘Address business rate reform
or high streets will struggle’
How could we possibly
have known?
his week, let’s talk a little about what is obvious in
terms of likely consequences, and which should
prompt the comment: “Well, what did they think
would happen?”
To begin with, here are two recent headlines that were
deemed newsworthy by the national media. The first,
“Self-checkouts leading to fall in supermarket vacancies”,
has all the revelatory power of a phrase such as “the sun rises
in the east”. The multiples are apparently finding it difficult
to attract shoppers back to their over-priced warehouses
following the renaissance of local life at the c-store level. The
realisation that people generally loathe enforced electronic
solutions such as endlessly faulty – not to mention patronis-
ing – computer checkouts, is no surprise. The fact that they
prefer talking to a human at a counter shouldn’t be a surprise
either.
The next headline perhaps also lacks a “slap my head in
shock” quality, because when we read that “Frequent ‘buy
now, pay later’ users more likely to be in financial straits”, we
are not entirely dumbfounded. In fact, you can almost
understand how further money troubles might ensue for
those who are offered tempting financial “solutions” to their
predicaments.
And yet, such things happen, always happen, continue
happening, and are always so endlessly alerting that Fleet
Street leaps up from its perch at the bar and heads back to the
office immediately to file the story. Unpredictable headlines
(such as this favourite from a few weeks ago: “Naked opera
singer armed with bow and arrow went on rampage at care
home”) are these days sadly rarer.
Yet the complicated theoretical equation of “A leads
directly to B” is clearly beyond the understanding of many in
public life. When at last, for example, the government
unveiled a plan named Project Pegasus to deal with the
epidemic of crime that retailers are suffering under – and
which now appears to be turning parabolic – a delegation of
libertarians and organisations worried about the effect on
the Criminals’ Lib movement predictably raised the alarm
about how thieves’ rights to steal might be impacted by facial
recognition technology.
Given the choice between electronic checkouts or
security cameras, we know which most retailers would go for
(the opposite of what 100% of shoplifters would go for, of
course). What is unsurprising is that retailers are worried that
Project Pegasus is going to be “all hat and no cattle”.
Likewise, if a doctor was asked what he would prefer – the
chance to get the population off tobacco and onto vapes, or
more cancer – he would almost always choose vapes, even
with illegal products and illicit sales currently running
rampant (and which are already illegal of course).
But going back to the obvious, and predicting inevita-
ble consequences, what is going to happen in this upcom-
ing election year? If you are a politician, it is clearly much
more tempting to ban vapes – which will get you good
headlines and easy interview questions – than to crack
down on shoplifters, which is expensive and messy, and
will lead to you being called a fascist.
Retailers are being urged to pull
out of a new policing strategy
including Project Pegasus amid
warnings it will “amplify exist-
ing inequalities in the criminal
justice system” and might result
in wrongly criminalising people
of colour, women and LGBTQ+
people.
A coalition of 14 human rights
groups has written to the main
retailers – also including Marks &
Spencer, the Co-op, Next, Boots
and Primark – saying that their
participation in a new govern-
ment-backed scheme that relies
heavily on facial recognition
technology to combat shoplift-
ing, The Guardian reported.
The letter, from Liberty,
Amnesty International and Big
Brother Watch, among others,
questions the unchecked rollout
of a technology that has provoked
fierce criticism over its impact on
privacy and human rights at a
time when the European Union is
seeking to ban the technology in
public spaces through proposed
legislation.
“Facial recognition technolo-
gy notoriously misidentifies
people of colour, women and
LGBTQ+ people, meaning that
already marginalised groups are
more likely to be subject to an
invasive stop by police, or at
increased risk of physical
surveillance, monitoring and
harassment by workers in your
stores,” the letter states.
The letter also state that the
move will “reverse steps” that big
retailers introduced during the
Black Lives Matter movement,
including high-profile commit-
ments to be champions of
diversity, equality and inclusion.
Critics say using biometric
surveillance could impinge on a
person’s “freedom of expression”
and deter people from protesting.
“Deploying this biometric
surveillance to track protesters is
an authoritarian step that aligns
the UK with the likes of Russia
and China,” said Madeleine Stone
of Big Brother Watch.
Protest over ‘authoritarian’ facial recognition plan
Anti-crime Project Pegasus
Anti-crime Project Pegasus
steers into headwinds
steers into headwinds