Why scrapping business rates is a bright idea

A worthwhile policy proposal amid the Labour conference dogfight? Now there’s a surprise. But shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves’s scheme to freeze and eventually scrap business rates, in the meantime boosting high-street survival by raising the threshold for small business rate relief and incentivising re-use of empty premises, was the brightest moment of the Brighton event.

No matter that Reeves is likely to hold her post only as long as Sir Keir Starmer holds his and that anything promised today will resemble a Dead Sea scroll by the time Labour ever returns to power. No matter also that her idea of balancing relief for bricks-and-mortar businesses with higher taxes on digital giants is sure to be defeated both by the giants’ lobbying power and by moves towards global corporate tax harmonisation.

What matters is that she spotlighted the outdated, unfair, economically damaging business rate system in a tone that was immediately welcomed by the Federation of Small Businesses as ‘a gauntlet’ to which Conservative ministers must now respond.