Nish Kankiwala: Budget is ‘two-handed grab’ from business

THE outgoing chief of retail giant John Lewis has taken aim at last month's Budget, describing its impact on businesses as a "two-handed grab" that will burden retailers with millions in extra costs.

Nish Kankiwala, who is wrapping up his two-year stint as the head of John Lewis and Waitrose, expressed particular concern about the changes to employer National Insurance contributions and the lack of meaningful business rates reform.

"If they could delay the national insurance [changes], but also if they could fundamentally bring forward a radical reshaping of business rates, I think it will make a massive difference," Kankiwala told The Financial Times. "Not just for small and medium enterprises, but I think for retail generally. It's very important."

The budget, unveiled by chancellor Rachel Reeves, will increase employer National Insurance to 15 per cent from April - a 1.2 percentage point rise. The move aims to help plug a £40 billion funding gap but has sparked worry among retailers.

Shop owners are especially frustrated by the government's failure to address the gap between business rates paid by high street shops and online retailers like Amazon. The British Retail Consortium estimates these changes will cost businesses £7bn annually and warns this could lead to job losses and price hikes for shoppers.

Despite facing "tens of millions" in additional costs next year, Kankiwala promised that John Lewis would try to protect customers from price increases. "The last thing we need is a resurgence of inflation, because we just got that under control, and inflation is not good for anybody," he was quoted as saying. "We will try and control [pricing] as much as possible."

The Treasury has defended its decisions, saying it "had to make difficult choices to fix the foundations of the country and restore desperately needed economic stability to allow businesses to thrive."

John Lewis recently returned to profit after three years of losses caused by high street competition, rising inflation, and pandemic-related shop closures.

Kankiwala, who became the partnership's first chief executive last March, insists these new costs won't derail the company's growth plans.