Bookshops next in firing line of Labour’s tax blitz

The cosy British bookshop is the latest High Street staple to find itself under threat from Labour’s tax raids, as owners warn that soaring bills could push many out of business and exacerbate a reading crisis among UK youngsters.

It means booksellers are now joining publicans, restaurateurs and hoteliers in warning that rising tax bills risk destroying Britain’s retail and hospitality sectors.

About 400 independent bookshops in England and Wales face an average rates bill rise of £4,563 a year by 2030 after Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ autumn Budget.

Dan Johns, manager of the Padstow Bookseller, a charming ivy-covered shop on the Cornish coast that caters to tourists and residents alike, told The Mail on Sunday the store would need to sell 1,141 more books a year to offset the £3,461 jump in the firm’s annual rates bill in April.

Surrounded by stacks of the copies needed to make that up, Johns said he felt ‘very buoyant’ two years ago, but that changed when a slew of cost rises including National Insurance Contributions, business rates and wages hit the firm after Labour came to power.

‘We’re under attack from lots of angles. Like our colleagues in hospitality, we breed a better High Street. Now it is harder,’ Johns said. 

Taxing issues: The cosy British bookshop is the latest High Street staple to find itself under threat from Labour’s tax raids

And Johns is one of the lucky ones, in that he has some backing. The Padstow shop is co-owned by Dan’s father Ron and celebrity chef Rick Stein and his wife Sarah.

Johns said one of the family’s other shops, the St Ives Bookseller, once named one of the best bookshops in the country, had seen its rates bill surge by 60 per cent.

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said: ‘Labour is hammering bookshops with thousands of pounds in extra business rates. 

High Streets are at the heart of our communities, yet Reeves has piled on costs to fund her benefits bonanza instead of backing them.

‘She and Labour show they don’t understand business. A Conservative government would abolish business rates for thousands of High Street shops and pubs.’

The Chancellor was forced into a partial climbdown on pub rates after landlords barred Labour MPs from their locals in protest.

And Andy Burnham last week pledged to scrap rates for shops, cafes and hair salons if he replaces Keir Starmer as Prime Minister.

Now bookshop owners are arguing that, despite offering as much to communities, they have not been granted a similar discount.

Business rate receipts from England’s independent bookshops will go from £4.1million to over £6million by 2030, says the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

Shops also tend to stick to the recommended prices on the back of books – so they can’t simply raise them to offset higher bills. 

Tall order: : Dan Johns, of Padstow Bookseller, with the 1,141 extra titles he needs to sell to pay higher bills

The Booksellers Association said its members were angry at the Government for raising their bills in the ‘national year of reading’, a campaign to increase literacy.

Johns said bookshops were vital in tackling a crisis in which reading for pleasure among eight to 18-year-olds is at its lowest level since records began in 2005. 

His 11 staff provide expert advice in a way ‘clicking a button’ on Amazon will not. But cost pressure is putting him off hiring more people. Laura McCormack at the Booksellers Association said such costs meant shops could miss out on the ‘BookTok’ reading resurgence sparked by users of the TikTok app recommending titles to followers.

She said the number of independent bookshops had been growing since 2016 as stores lured shoppers with events such as author talks and toddler activities, but this risked being snuffed out by the Government’s tax raid, adding: ‘That recovery is fragile.’

The Treasury said: ‘We have the right economic plan, backing High Street firms by reforming business rates, including a £4.3 billion support package to limit bill rises.’