Conservative chief whip Gagan Mohindra has suggested a “permanent 100% business rates relief” for “the retail, leisure and hospitality sector in England”, in a parliamentary debate about government support for high street businesses.
In the debate, held on June 4, Mohindra described the high street as “really suffering”.
He listed pharmacies as part of a group of businesses who are “all facing rising costs and challenging trading conditions”.
Read more: Government can turn a corner and ‘rebuild pharmacy’, Kinnock says
The other businesses mentioned were hospitality venues, independent retailers, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and post offices.
The politician mentioned the “back our high streets bill”, which is the Conservatives’ plan to support high street. It describes it as a “credible plan to get British business booming again”.
“Key pillars” of community
According to the Conservatives’ website, it wants to “defend key pillars of the community such as post offices, pubs and pharmacies” and described business rates as “punitive”.
In this plan, the party pledged to “abolish business rates for thousands of high street businesses”.
Mohindra called for the opposition to “think twice about the burdens we are putting on businesses”.
Read more: Pharmacies are ‘hanging on by a thread’, warns CPE
It follows calls from the NPA in January, to the Chancellor to extend business rates support to community pharmacies.
The organisation warned “many pharmacy businesses will be unable to survive” and brought “to the brink of collapse”.
Read more: Pharmacy must be ‘strengthened’ before neighbourhood care shift
After the pharmacy funding contract for 2026/27 was announced on May 29, there was notably no support given to pharmacies for high business rates.
In a Westminster debate on the future of community pharmacy, held on June 2, Liberal Democrat MP Rachel Gilmour raised the issue of business rates relief to pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock.
She asked “how this disparity can possibly be justified?” and “whether the government intends to move to address this?”.
