News

The Autumn Statement 2022 comes at a time of significant economic challenge for the UK economy.

The statement focused on three key areas: stability, growth and public services.

The context set out by the Chancellor included:-

• The Office for Budget Responsibility has confirmed the UK is already in recession and expected to shrink further.
• The Chancellor said global factors are the primary cause of the current inflation, energy and economic crises.

Following the announcement, the government have released a Business Rates Factsheet.

The government is seeking to protect the High Street from rising inflation and to level the playing field between ‘Bricks V Clicks’ to address the tax imbalance for high street retailers. They have made the following commitments:

• Freezing the business rates multiplier for another year to 2023/24
• An extended and increased relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses from 50% to 75% for 2023-24
• Protection for small businesses who lose eligibility for either Small Business or Rural Rate Relief due to new property valuations
• Total business rates paid by the retail sector is estimated to fall by 20%, but will rise by 27% for large distribution warehouses to reflect the growth in the online sales sector.

This package is estimated to mean that the total increase in business rates bills will be less than 1%, compared to over 20% without intervention.

You can also find the future rateable value for your property and get an estimate of what your business rates bill may be from 1 April 2023 here.

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BUSINESS MEASURES

• The Government will proceed with revaluation for business rates taking effect in April 2023.  To protect businesses from rising inflation the multiplier will be frozen in 2023-24 while relief for 230,000 businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure sectors will be increased from 50% to 75% next year.
  • This limits bill increases for the smallest properties to 5%. Businesses seeing lower bills as a result of the revaluation will benefit from that decrease in full straight away, as the Chancellor abolished downwards transitional reliefs caps.
• Following the recent consultation on an Online Sales Tax (OST), the government has decided not to introduce such a tax. The idea of an OST was put forward by certain stakeholders to “rebalance” the business rates bills paid by in-store retailers in comparison to their online counterparts.
• Small businesses who lose eligibility for either Small Business or Rural Rate Relief as a result of the new property revaluations will see their bill increases capped at £50 a month through a new separate scheme worth over £500 million.

WIDER BUSINESS MEASURES

• Employment allowance will be maintained at the higher level of £5,000.
• The Chancellor says businesses will be provided with additional support next year for cost-of-living.
• The “national living wage” will rise by 9.7% next year to £10.42 an hour.
• Tariffs will be cut to support business supply chains.
• Investment zones will be kept, centred on universities in “left behind areas” to help build growth clusters, with further announcements at the spring budget.

Autumn Statement 2022

We had a fantastic night celebrating our wonderful businesses and great entertainment. Congratulations to all the winners!

After a very tough couple of years on the retail and hospitality landscapes especially, it was inspiring to see how our local businesses have met the challenges and exhibited true spirit and a determination to succeed.

The awards saw VIPs and business owners and employees celebrate the resilience, variety and successes of Streatham’s business community.

Hosted by Streatham boy, Richard Blackwood, who entertained the audience with anecdotes of his childhood in the area.  MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Lambeth’s Deputy Mayor, Councillor Sarbaz Barznji also spoke at the event.

Richard presented the ten award winners with their trophies, certificates and prizes, with each one met with rapturous applause. The winners were:

Best Newcomer

Winner: Luxe Petals

Sponsored by Heart Streatham Magazine 

Best Small Business

Winner: WhizzDance 

Sponsored by Davisons Law

Best Place to Eat & Drink

Winner: Trio Pizzeria

Sponsored by SavviVille

Best Independent Shop 

Winner: Creative Soul

Sponsored by Evermile

Most Sustainable Business Award 

Winner: Healthier Without

Sponsored by First Mile

Best Business Front or Interior 

Winner: The Rabbit Hole

Sponsored by B1 Creative 

Best Customer Service Award 

Winner: I Love Coffee

Sponsored by Holmes Estates

The Covid Recovery Award 

Winner: Batch & Co 

Sponsored by Lambeth Council 

The Streatham Business of the Year

Winner: Mediworld

Sponsored by Anthony Gold 

The Spirit of Streatham Award 

Winner: LDN Photographic

Sponsored by The means

Well done to the winners for your well-deserved awards.

InStreatham BID Manager, Louise Abbotts, commented: “InStreatham is an organisation that was created to serve its business community and we are so happy to have been able to bring people together last night to connect and reflect after such a difficult few years. We are so proud of our hard working business owners and managers so it was a real honour to celebrate their achievements at this year’s Business Awards. Together, change is possible and we are asking businesses to continue to invest in a Streatham for the future when we head to our renewal ballot in January next year!”

In collaboration with the Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams, we have launched a scheme to help our chain stores in the central Streatham shopping district.

TM Eye will be working with InStreatham and Station to Station BID to provide our members and its employees with the resources required to help tackle the ongoing issue of shoplifting and anti-social behaviour. 

TM Eye was set up in 2007 by Ex Metropolitan senior detective David McEveley and offers a prevention, apprehension and prosecution solution to tackle low level crime. They will offer their expertise and support to help us tackle the plight of shoplifting and ASB on Streatham High Road.

TM Eye will build a network of the store managers and security guards on our high street by training the staff in dealing with shoplifters, anti-social behaviour, gathering evidence and offering live advice and support.

When an offence is committed, TM-Eye will collect the evidence, ensure continuity of evidence and store it securely and inform the police accordingly through our information sharing partnership. For shoplifting offences, they can work with the stores to issue a trespass notice or make a private prosecution.

They will be getting in touch with chain store managers in coming weeks.