A Liberal Democrat MP has warned that rising taxes, soaring costs and escalating shop theft are pushing high street businesses towards a “cost-of-doing-business crisis”, echoing concerns frequently raised by convenience store retailers.
Speaking in the House of Commons on March 4, Joshua Reynolds, MP for Maidenhead, said businesses across the country are facing mounting pressure from higher employer National Insurance contributions (NICs), rising energy costs and uncertainty around new employment legislation.
Reynolds described the rise in employer NICs as an “unfair jobs tax”, arguing that increasing the tax burden on businesses at a time of economic pressure risks undermining growth.
“Britain is in the middle of a cost-of-doing-business crisis,” Reynolds told MPs. "I see it on my high street and I hear about it from local employers, and colleagues from across the House will hear exactly the same in their constituencies.
"From the Government’s national insurance hikes to sky-high energy bills and uncertainty over what the Employment Rights Act 2025 will mean in practice, British businesses are being pulled in one direction and then another.
"The Government say that they want to grow the economy, but significantly adding to the tax burden of the very organisations that are trying to do that does not help."
Rising shoplifting concerns
Reynolds also raised the growing problem of retail crime, warning that shoplifting is increasingly going unpunished.
He told Parliament that shoplifting in England and Wales has risen by 48 per cent over the past five years, with many retailers reporting that police often do not follow up on lower-value thefts.
He said, “Shop owners tell me time and again that when they contact the police, they are told it is not an effective use of resources to follow up on minor thefts.
"However, these are not minor thefts to the people running those businesses, and they are not minor to the staff, often young people, who are being put in harm’s way simply for doing their jobs.
"With over 800 offences going unpunished every day, businesses are haemorrhaging money, driving up costs for consumers and pushing businesses to close their doors for good."
Call for support for small stores
As part of his speech, Reynolds proposed targeted government support to help independent retailers improve store security.
He said, "A small shop needs about £6,500 for adequate modern CCTV, so the Government can make available grants for half that cost to every independent convenience store, and they can work with high street lenders to provide affordable loans to cover the rest."
He argued that rising taxes, high energy bills and increasing crime were placing businesses under unsustainable pressure.
“What the Government have delivered is a jobs tax, broken business rates, unaffordable energy bills and a shoplifting epidemic that they refuse to take seriously.
"Businesses right across the country are resilient, but resilience has limits, and this Government have tested those limits to breaking point.
"The Government have the tools to act, but they needs to use them to bring down the cost of doing business, because we are in a complete crisis," he said.