UK retailers, including Tesco, Asda, and M&S, are planning to launch a campaign in the new year to warn Chancellor Rachel Reeves about the potential threat to jobs and stores posed by proposed business rates reforms.

Some of Britain’s largest retailers such as Morrisons and Sainsbury’s have agreed to restore the Retail Jobs Alliance (RJA), which was initially launched in 2022, and are expected to engage with the Treasury in the coming weeks, Sky News reported.

The alliance will highlight concerns that a wave of tax rises and regulatory changes could jeopardise investment by major retailers in economically deprived areas of the country.

Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free

Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning

The coalition said it will produce analysis demonstrating that many stores with rateable values above the new £500,000 threshold are located in areas heavily reliant on retailers for employment opportunities.

The group is also said to be coordinating its plans with the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

It comes as last month, more than 70 companies including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons warned Reeves that her decision to increase employers’ National Insurance contributions in the Budget will lead to “inevitable” job cuts and price rises.

In a letter, the retailers said combined with a rise in the national minimum wage, and new packaging levies, the retail industry’s costs could surge by up to £7bn a year.