The British Retail Consortium has published a range of “ground breaking” suggestions to changes in the business rates system.

The BRC said that the proposed changes could “ensure that customers continue to benefit from competition, provide positive incentives for retailers to invest in property, support the regeneration of the high street and create more jobs to add to the three million people already employed in the industry”.

The potential options the BRC has proposed include shifting the basis for taxing property by replacing the current system with a tax based on other measures, for example, energy usage; rewarding employment by delivering a discount to the Business Rates bill based on a given value per employee, capped at an overall proportion of company rates bill; supporting successful business by providing a discount to the Business Rates bill based on a percentage of Corporation Tax payment, capped at overall proportion of company rates bill; modernising the existing system by introducing a simplified, banded revaluation system, with revaluations on a more regular basis.

The BRC said that “as other taxes have been modernised, the rates system has been left behind and is woefully out of date”.

Commenting on today's proposals Helen Dickinson said: "We have a once in a generation chance to fundamentally change the business rates system and the time is right to think creatively and in the best long term economic interests of the UK. These potential options would be good for the public, the economy and businesses small and large, while still providing significant tax revenues for the Government. We now intend to analyse each one in more detail and very much hope that we will stimulate discussion that goes beyond tinkering with the existing system."

John Rogers, CFO at J Sainsbury who has chaired the project said: "The current system is outdated and cumbersome and does nothing to encourage retailers to invest. We believe we can do better for business and for tax payers and these options represent tangible progress in the debate on what reform could look like if we think about retail in the future, rather than the past."