The Conservatives have promised to abolish business rates for some shops and pubs if they win the next election.
Speaking at the party’s conference in Manchester, shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said the move would be funded by getting “public spending under control”.
The party said its policy would cost £4bbn a year and will benefit about 250,000 businesses in total.
Addressing the conference, Sir Mel said businesses needed “hope”, highlighting how 89,000 jobs had been “destroyed” in the hospitality sector alone since the COVID pandemic.
He criticised a raft of new taxes introduced by Labour, including the tax on farms and the increase in employers’ national insurance contributions, and said: “For many businesses the burden of Labour’s tax rises is simply too much to bear.”
He added: “Pubs closing, shops sitting empty, high streets hollowed out.
“Under Labour, many have seen their business rates double. We need to get business rates down.
“So today I can announce that as a direct result of getting public spending under control, a future Conservative government will completely abolish business rates for shops and pubs on our high streets.
“End of. Finished. Gone.”
Sir Mel sought to portray the Tories as the party of “fiscal responsibility” by drawing comparisons with Labour and Reform UK, whom he said were being “found out”.
He accused Rachel Reeves of already having “blown a vast hole in the public finances” but that “yet more tax rises await”.
“In fact, under Labour, nothing is safe from the taxman – not your job, not your home, not your pension, not your farm, not your business.
“Not even that -what you simply wish to pass on to your own children. You name it, they’ll tax it.”
He also turned his fire on Reform UK, which he said was “marching to the left” and increasingly becoming the “party of more spending and more debt”.
