Recent campaigns waged by the Forum of Private Business (FPB) have been rather wide-ranging. From plans to roll out congestion charging from London to other areas of the UK – which the FPB believes will effectively become another tax on firms such as courier services whose business relies on their vehicles – to supporting the stand an alliance of small retailers in Chorlton, Manchester, took against Tesco’s plans to build a fourth store in the area, the run up to Christmas has certainly not been slow. Smaller businesses are gearing up for their busiest period of the year, and the FPB continues to represent them on both a national and local level. Read more

The FPB has long campaigned against the decline of the UK’s small, independent high street shops, which are increasingly being replaced by both national and global chain stores. Many urban centres are becoming disturbingly familiar – the much-criticised ‘clone town’ effect. Smaller retailers struggle under the weight of tax and red tape, poor planning decisions made by local authorities wooed by the financial clout of big business, and, most of all, the unfair practices of out-of-town supermarkets.

Last year, the FPB welcomed the Competition Commission’s inquiry into abuses within the groceries market. We looked forward to the lid being lifted on the supermarkets’ aggressive buying policies – which allows them to squeeze suppliers – and their predatory pricing strategies. Now, even clothes, household goods and products such as CDs and computer games are sold cheaply by the big supermarkets, undercutting local high street firms – including FPB members who run small computer shops and IT companies. Last year Britain’s biggest retailer, Tesco, dubbed ‘the King Kong of the retail jungle’ by the FPB, reported a 13% rise in full year underlying profits to £2.55 billion.

However, the Commission’s provisional findings, published at the end of October, appear to have severely let down supermarket suppliers and smaller retailers, in particular those who want to give evidence that the abuse is taking place.

The investigation has not resulted in them being given a cast-iron guarantee of anonymity in exchange for their evidence. Unfortunately, because many still have to do business with the big retailers, they feel that lifting their heads above the parapet to publicly speak out against their paymasters would be tantamount to commercial suicide.

The report noted a lack of competition in some areas of the UK, but its measures to tackle this have missed the point. Forcing Tesco to sell its former Co-op site in Slough so another big supermarket chain can move in will not mean free and fair competition across the local grocery sector – smaller retailers on the high street will still lose out. Many high street retailers selling computer games, music CDs and similar goods are already reeling from the effects of a VAT loophole that the big retailers are exploiting. They have the resources to set up distribution outlets in the Channel Islands, avoiding paying VAT altogether by taking advantage of an obscure EU directive from 1983 called Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR). This was created so that governments could avoid spending time collecting taxes with values less than the cost of collection.

The Commission did make recommendations which could improve the situation, such as changing the planning rules, and ending the practice of big retailers buying up vast swathes of land to fend off competition, said that customers were getting a good deal.

You can’t blame people for seeking out low prices, but the FPB believes that the hidden cost to high streets is not only the damage caused to local economies, it is also the harm that is being done to the social fabric of communities.