BRC reacts to Lib Dem manifesto

14 April 2010

Responding to the Liberal Democrat Party manifesto, published today (Wednesday), the British Retail Consortium (BRC) issued the following reactions:

Your job

“Reform business rates, creating a fairer system where rates are based on site values rather than rental values and are the responsibility of local authorities” – British Retail Consortium Director General Stephen Robertson said: “It’s vital for retailers that the overall cumulative business rates burden is affordable. It’s also vital that retailers understand the longer term direction of these costs. We’d be extremely concerned if local control of business rates led to greater uncertainty for retailers operating in large numbers of local authority areas and undermined their ability to make investment decisions.”

A green future: protecting the planet

· “Develop an international labelling system for the environmental impact of products” Stephen Robertson said: – “There are already methodologies to assess and label the carbon footprint of products, but they are often unreliable and difficult to compare with each other. A robust system that incorporates all environmental impacts and can be applied to all products will be hard to develop and may not be the best way to change consumer behaviour.”

Your community

“Give far more power to elected police authorities, including the right to sack and appoint the Chief Constable, set local policing priorities and agree and determine budgets” – Stephen Robertson said: “We support moves away from nationally imposed targets towards more broad measurements of community confidence and local accountability. But retail must be recognised as a significant partner in the local community and genuinely involved in setting local crime priorities.”
“Ensure that financial resources, and police and court time, are not wasted on unnecessary prosecution and imprisonment of drug users and addicts” – Stephen Robertson said: “The BRC has often referred to the link between drugs and those offending in our stores. While there’s a place for restorative justice and tackling the root causes of crime, the evidence on the success of drug prevention programmes is limited. We would need to see evidence of the success of such schemes before supporting a move away from bringing these offenders before the courts.”

Your say

“The increase in National Insurance Contributions is a damaging tax on jobs and an unfair tax on employees, so when resources allow we would seek to reverse it” Stephen Robertson said: – “We welcome the Liberal Democrats’ recognition that the NIC increase is a damaging tax on jobs and their intention to reverse it. But the introduction of this increase will damage the retail sector’s ability to maintain and create jobs and to contribute to the economic recovery. It should not be introduced.”

Your Life

“Reduce the ill health and crime caused by excessive drinking. We support a ban on below-cost selling, and are in favour of the principle of minimum pricing” Stephen Robertson said: “Irresponsible drinking is not about price, it’s about culture. Retailers are actively engaged in changing attitudes through information and education. Using the law to increase prices would harm the vast majority of people who drink responsibly while making no difference to the minority who don’t. ‘Below cost selling’ is difficult to define and moves to prevent it may clash with competition law. We would like to see further detail of the Lib Dem’s intentions.”

Your Community

“Create a legal Supermarket Code and a powerful independent regulator of Britain’s food market.” Stephen Robertson said: “We already have a new and enhanced Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP) which is enforced by the OFT. It gives suppliers more protection and a new right to independent arbitration if they’re unhappy. Why intervene further in a market that works effectively and delivers great value and choice for customers? This is not about farmers, very few deal directly with supermarkets. A new regulator would hand negotiating power to multi-national food businesses and cost customers millions of pounds in higher prices.”

“Work with the EU to make sure country-of-origin labels identify the source of the products, not where they are packaged. Stephen Robertson said: “In response to customer demand, retailers have gone a long way to provide this information where they practically can. It is already very common on a whole range of foods, particularly fresh meat. But the evidence is country of origin is not an important factor for most customers when they make their buying decisions. With so much information already available to customers, we don’t need a new costly, bureaucratic imposition that forces a pile of new obligations on retailers. Any new UK regulation would have to be consistent with EU-wide legislation which is currently progressing.”

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