Where Tesco leads on business rates relief, others should follow
Now Morrisons has, Sainsbury’s, B&M and co must decide whether to return the chancellor’s gifts
What a profitable day for the Treasury. First, Tesco coughed up £585m, confessing its pandemic freebie on business rates had become impossible to justify. Then Morrisons, accurately reading the mood, volunteered £274m.
By the end of this week, when the penny drops in other boardrooms, one strongly suspects Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, will have received the thick end of £2bn without lifting a finger. The sum won’t make a serious dent in the £394bn of public borrowing this year but, hey, every little helps.



