Tackling business rates to prevent the death of the High Street, says the boss of Mitchells & Butlers pubs

The boss of Mitchells and Butlers has warned that High Streets ‘will die’ without radical business rates reform to offset rising budget costs.

Phil Urban, chief executive of the 1,700-strong pub group behind the Harvester and All Bar One chains, said his company alone faces £100 million in additional costs.

Pets at Home also warned of an £18m hit as a profit warning sent its shares tumbling 17 per cent to a four-year low.

The pain on the High Street follows the chancellor’s decision to increase national insurance paid by employers – despite a manifesto pledge not to do so – and hand out an inflation-busting increase in the minimum wage.

Rachel Reeves failed to deliver on her promise to replace business rates with a fairer system. Instead, she left companies that faced higher bills starting in April.

The High Street has demanded urgent reform of rates to ease the shock. “Main streets will die if they don’t,” Urban said.

The issue has been highlighted by the Mail’s Save Our High Streets campaign.

Reeves simply launched a “conversation” about what an overhaul would look like – and promised change by 2026.

“The irony is that any reduction in business rates we ultimately get will be more than offset by a change in the national insurance rate,” Urban added.

His company, which employs 45,000 staff, will come under pressure to raise prices in a bid to retain workers.

Urban branded Labor “naive” for depriving the retail and hospitality industries of support and punishing them with higher costs as they were the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic.

Despite the dismal budget figures, Urban hailed a return to profits for the year to September 28, after the pub group posted a profit of £199 million, up from a £13 million loss last year due to high energy bills.

His concerns were echoed by Lyssa McGowan, chief executive of Pets at Home, who called the budget ‘disappointing’ and said she was ‘examining’ whether prices should be increased after an £18m hit to labor costs.

A House of Lords report published today also warns that ‘revitalising a high street in crisis is no easy task’.