News

Figures released today (April 28^th) as part of the Home Office’s Commercial Victimisation Survey have found that one in five premises in the retail and wholesale sector were victims of shop theft over the last year, with the sector having the highest crime rate of any sector surveyed.

The survey states that wholesale and retail premises experienced 4.7m crimes in 2015, with almost three quarters of those crimes (72%) being attributed to theft by customers.

Ahead of the National Assembly for Wales elections on 5^th May, retailers are welcoming local candidates into their stores. These will be the fifth elections for the Assembly, which holds a range of powers over the economy, planning, employment and now business rates.

ACS chief executive James Lowman has called on the convenience sector to engage with local decision makers to establish their community credentials and make sure the economic role of local shops is understood. In his introductory remarks at Summit'16, Mr Lowman predicted that local public health interventions on alcohol, tobacco and sugar would become more common in the coming years, and was a big strategic threat for retailers to face up to.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has responded to the Public Bill Committee’s call for evidence on the Policing and Crime Bill, raising concerns that a provision to no longer require alcohol licensing guidance to be scrutinised by Parliament could mean significant changes could be made to the guidance without any accountability.

The National Living Wage will come into force today (1^st April) for all employees aged 25 and over. The new rate of pay for these workers will be £7.20 per hour.

The Chancellor announced the National Living Wage as part of his 2015 Budget without consultation with the Low Pay Commission, and has signalled his intention for the rate to reach at least £9 per hour by 2020.

The Government has announced that the current £1 coin is being replaced for the first time in over 30 years because of its vulnerability to sophisticated counterfeiters. The new 12-sided coin resembles the old ‘threepenny bit’, with the Royal Mint claiming that it will be the world’s most secure coin in circulation.

Levels of counterfeit £1 coins have been as high as 3% in the past few years, equating to around 45 million coins. The new coin will aim to reduce the costs of counterfeits to businesses and the taxpayer.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has welcomed HMRC’s new Alcohol Strategy, aimed at tackling the illicit trade in alcohol.

The strategy consists of three main parts:

The 2016 ACS Crime Report has revealed that crime against local shops is costing an estimated £122m, or £2,370 per store. On top of this, the average store is investing £1,379 in crime prevention. The total costs of crime and crime prevention equate to the cost of employing over 12,000 additional full time staff in stores.

ACS has welcomed the Chancellor’s announcement that the small business rate relief threshold will be raised to £15,000 rateable value from £6,000.

In the Budget, the Chancellor also announced that from 2020, future business rates increases will be based on CPI rather than RPI, which should lead to less steep increases in rates bills for retailers.

ACS has called on the Chancellor to reintroduce the Retail Rate Relief scheme for small businesses as part of a package of measures to help local shops and high streets.

In its submission to the Chancellor’s Budget on March 16^th, ACS has called for the following: