Hopefully others will do the same...
Two of the UK’s biggest supermarkets have bowed to pressure and are repaying more than £850m in business rates relief they accepted from the UK government to help the supermarkets deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
In a surprise move, Tesco announced its decision to repay £585m on Wednesday morning. Morrisons followed suit, saying it would repay its £274m of financial support on Wednesday evening.
The government introduced the 12-month business rates holiday in March because it feared the pandemic would strain retailers’ finances, potentially threatening their ability to feed the country. However, the reality proved very different, with big supermarkets enjoying a sales boost, albeit with higher costs.
They have been under growing pressure to return the cash to the government, especially when they have paid out big dividends to shareholders. Tesco paid its investors £315m in October .
Tesco said “every penny” of the rates relief had been spent on responding to the pandemic, but that in making the repayment it was “conscious of our responsibilities to society”. It has said the pandemic added £725m to its costs. Morrisons said its costs had risen by £270m.
In total, the big six supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl – were in line for £1.9bn in business tax relief during the current tax year, according to figures from Altus Group, a property adviser.
The discounter B&M received a £38m business rates holiday in the first half of its financial year, and has paid out a special dividend of £250m after doubling its profits during the pandemic. .
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/dec/02/tesco-to-pay-back-585m-of-covid-business-rates-relief
