ACS Blog

We were pleased to see Nicky Morgan MP, chair of the Treasury Select Committee, write today to the chairman of LINK, the group that manages the UK’s ATM network, about their proposals to reduce the interchange fees that banks pay to businesses providing ATMs.  I think this is important for convenience stores and the eco system of local businesses that we trade alongside, and I’ll explain why, but first, here’s a very quick primer on how the ATM system works (if you know all this, skip a paragraph).

It’s interesting to see how Budgets have changed over the years. Generally, they’re more interesting (which also means more worrying and unpredictable) when the Chancellor is an ambitious politician mapping out their route from number 11 to number 10 Downing Street. Under Gordon Brown and George Osborne, Budgets were a tour taking in social policy and economic philosophy, a manifesto for the Chancellor as much as a report on the public finances. Philip Hammond strikes a different figure, very obviously constrained by the tight economic and political position he finds himself in, carefully t

For all the business debate that categories like food to go, and fresh and chilled (rightly) attract in our sector, the pre-occupations of politicians when it comes to local shops remain those categories that have the most direct impacts on the health of the people and communities we serve.  That's why, for as long as I can remember, politicians have looked for new ways to regulate tobacco and alcohol, and more recently sugar and other foods.

Last week I was – along with about 70 retailers and suppliers – in Dublin looking at the much-heralded convenience store market in Ireland.  We saw loads of great stores, but the thing that stood out more than anything else was the outstanding food to go offer in pretty much every site we visited. 

New figures out today from ONS and the NHS have shown that there’s been real progress made by retailers in reducing the sale of restricted products like cigarettes to young people. This is something that the sector should be proud of - in the past there has been a stigma surrounding convenience stores that suggested that they were a haven for young people buying alcohol and tobacco, but this is far from the truth. 

I’m really buzzing after a great hustings event today run by ACS with our friends at the Federation of Small Businesses.  After a general election campaign that has often seen politicians lurching from loudhailer sloganeering to robotic repetition of focus group-tested messages, with some pretty poor TV debates thrown in, today’s event saw my faith restored in good quality, substantive debate on the issues that matter to small shops, small businesses, and the communities we all serve.

In recent weeks, the Chancellor has come under fire from all sides over the impact of the business rates revaluation, with many claiming that the impact on their businesses could be catastrophic. In the convenience sector, as with many others, the reality is that there will be both winners and losers when the new rates take effect in April.

There’s plenty of discussion in the media about business rates policy, with most retail and wider business groups agreeing there needs to be a change to the way rates are calculated and collected (see businesses organisations agreed position here). But what specifics should we expect, or hope for, when the Chancellor stands up on Wednesday?

Well, that went well.  Not many organisations can put defeating the government on their CV, but after yesterday’s Commons vote against devolving Sunday trading laws, ACS, Usdaw and the rest of the Keep Sunday Special campaign can claim this rare distinction.  There will be plenty of time to reflect on the details of the campaign, and plenty of people to thank for their contribution, but I wanted to write about the role that individual retailers can play in making real change in politics.

Today’s publication of the government’s response to their public consultation is a chance to see their analysis all the evidence that has been put forward by groups like us, and also those who favour longer Sunday opening hours.  There’s a team in the Department for Business running this consultation, which launched over six months ago, analysing responses and reviewing the evidence.