The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has written to the chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, saying that without financial support its members will walk away. “We will see villages, housing estates, neighborhoods and main streets lose their small shops,” the letter says. The trade body, which represents 48,000 local shops employing 405,000 staff, said energy bills rose to an average of £45,000 for smaller members, more than double what shop owners were paying before they renewed their contracts in recent months. Collectively, it said its members faced energy bills worth £2.5bn and needed a support package worth at least £575m to stay afloat. “The government must understand that this is an emergency situation. “Thousands of grocers will be forced to make extremely difficult decisions in the face of tens of thousands of pounds of additional energy costs over the coming months, which at best will include canceled investment, reduced staff hours and increased in-store prices, pushing inflation even further,” it said. “For some, however, the cost of energy will make the business unsustainable, and so they will be forced to close unless steps are taken to provide meaningful support.” The rescue package outlined by the ACS would include an emergency electricity cap for small businesses and a freeze on further business rate increases, which the ACS also said should be phased out between October and March. “We cannot overstate the urgency of the situation facing our members. These are highly resilient businesses that sell a wide range of products and services, adapted to the changing needs of their local communities. ACS does not typically anticipate closing large convenience stores, but we are taking it very seriously now,” ACS CEO James Lowman wrote in the letter. A Treasury spokesman said the government understood people were struggling with rising prices and was trying to support businesses “to navigate the coming months”. “We have cut taxes for hundreds of thousands of businesses by increasing employment allowance and cutting fuel taxes. We also introduced a 50% business rate relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses and put a brake on bill increases by freezing the business rate multiplier, worth £4.6bn over the next five years,” the spokesman said. Subscribe to Business Today Get ready for the business day – we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “We are making the necessary preparations to ensure that a new government has options to provide additional support as soon as possible.”
