Why business rates reform will green our tax system and revive our high streets

The past 18 months have been challenging for many businesses, to say the least, and many investment plans have been put on ice. And although the return to consumer spending over the past few months has injected some much-needed momentum into our economy, we need business appetite to thaw before we can hope to put our recovery on a more even keel.

Yet one of the perpetual problems facing businesses, large or small – undermining any call to invest more – is a business rates system stuck in the past. It may seem a bit niche but time and time again, when I talk to businesses about their investment plans to make their buildings more energy-efficient or upgrade their manufacturing plant or rebuild a high street shop, they talk about how the current business rates system works against their investment plans and our wider aims to revive our high streets and decarbonise our infrastructure.