M&S chief executive Stuart Machin has warned that the retail sector is “being raided like a piggy bank” following tax changes set out in the Autumn Budget.

Writing in The Times, the boss of the upmarket retailer said that while Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ speech last month included some “commendable” announcements such as “long-term planning” and “good ideas to free up investment in infrastructure”, he said it “failed to address the significant impact of the budget on the here and now”.

“If the government wants to invest in the future, then lightening the burden that the budget loaded onto the retail sector should be at the top of its immediate action list,” wrote Machin.

He claimed that the current budget would mean UK retail will “get smaller”, noting that the sector already pays an effective tax rate of 55%, with the Chancellor’s budget set to add £7bn of extra employment costs.

As a result, the British Retail Consortium and Institute of Grocery Distribution are already projecting food inflation of more than 4%.

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“At M&S we are growing, but others are not and there is no doubt that there will be fewer jobs, fewer shops, and slower wage growth across the sector as a whole. The impact is being felt in the supply chain, too.

“UK food manufacturing and farming will contract, domestic products will go up in price and more food will be imported with potentially less stringent quality and environmental standards. This is happening already with declining UK herds and beef and lamb prices up by more than 60% since 2020,” Machin explained.

In other areas, he criticized the Employment Rights Bill and the change to the National Insurance Contributions (NICs) threshold, which he said, “will hit part-time workers hardest”.

Machin also described the Deposit Return Scheme, which is set to go ahead in October 2027, as “nonsensical”, and noted that Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), an environmental levy that looks to fund recycling, will give retailers a tax bill “20 times the current amount with £2bn going straight to the Treasury as general taxation and no improvement to recycling”.

As a result, the M&S boss has asked the Chancellor to phase the timing of the NICs threshold decrease over two years to help employers manage the impact, delay the increase in EPR fees, and pause and review all Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) circularity recycling schemes.

He has also asked Reeves to rethink the approach to business rates and ensure the Defra minister works with the sector to “co-create a food strategy focused on growing British food production, push on with a veterinary agreement to help smooth the impact of Brexit, and think again on inheritance tax”.