It’s groundhog day with the same empty promises to fix business rates

So groundhog day is back just in time for Christmas, with party leaders all promising to “breathe new life” into the high street.

The good news is they all seem to agree that something needs to be done to fix the broken business rates system. The bad news is their policies appear to be a rehash of long-promised consultations and pie-in-the-sky ideas which would never work.

Jo Swinson says she would scrap business rates altogether, while Boris Johnson would have another “fundamental review” and Jeremy Corbyn would give every shopkeeper a free shop and force greedy landlords to raise the shutters at gunpoint (well that last one’s an exaggeration, but only just).

It all suggests that, as manifesto promises begin to emerge this week, the industry better not be waiting on politicians to come riding to the rescue.

PM’s revitalisation measures don’t include a full shake-up of the business rates system

Scrapping business rates and replacing them with a commercial landowner levy would “shift the burden from the tenant to the landlord so that we can breathe new life into our high streets,” argued Lib Dem boss Swinson at the CBI yesterday, where she was at least allowed on the same stage as the Conservative and Labour leaders, unlike in tonight’s TV debate.

Unfortunately, the idea of passing the load from retailers to landlords has already been discussed, and dismissed, by those leading the search for alternatives to rates.

The recent findings of the Treasury Select Committee inquiry suggested that, appealing as it was, whacking landlords in the pocket would simply add to the huge backlog of rates appeals and see landlords pass back the burden by upping rents.

Swinson is not the only leader to lay the blame at “evil landlords”. Jeremy Corbyn has outlined plans to save the high street from “retail Armageddon” by giving local authorities powers to force landlords to open empty shops, whether they wanted to or not.

Again, a nice idea. But saving the high street by empowering local councils to drive out greedy landlords is about as realistic as Corbyn’s plans for free broadband, free tuition and free visits to the dentist.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives have promised a fundamental review of rates – although Johnson did not tell the CBI how this would differ from the review launched by David Cameron in 2014.

It’s not all gloom and doom on rates. The Treasury review did suggest that – given proper exploration – a new system could be found to replace the one which has been in operation in some shape or form since the Tudors. Its favoured option was a hybrid combining a much-reduced property burden for the tax with another key element, taking into account reviews or profitability.

But with the major parties still split on the best way forward, and none anywhere near to launching the preparatory work necessary to get such a system off the ground, it’s a fair bet a few more Christmases will come and go before the issue of business rates is fixed.

With new figures from the Centre for Retail Research today suggesting nearly 6,000 large stores have shut their doors in the past nine months, quite what will be left to save is anyone’s guess.