Sainsbury's and Aldi bring supermarket business rates savings to £1.4bn

Four UK supermarkets have now confirmed that they are planning to forgo property tax relief from the UK government.

Sainsbury’s and Aldi have today joined Tesco and Morrisons in announcing that they will pay business rates to the government, bringing the total saved from supermarkets to £1.4bn.

Sainsbury’s said this morning that it would pay £410m in its financial year to March 2021, and £30m in the following year, with Aldi confirming that it would pay £100m.

This comes after the UK government and devolved administrations exempted all retailers from paying the tax on their stores for the 2020/21 financial year to help them through the pandemic.

Simon Roberts, CEO of Sainsbury’s, commented: ““We have been proud to play our part in feeding the nation in this extraordinary year and every one of our colleagues has gone above and beyond to support each other, our customers and our communities.

“While we have incurred significant costs in keeping colleagues and customers safe, food and other essential retailers have benefited from being able to open throughout.

“With regional restrictions likely to remain in place for some time, we believe it is now fair and right to forgo the business rates relief that we have been given on all Sainsbury’s stores.

“We are very mindful that non-essential retailers and many other businesses have been forced to close again in the second lockdown and we hope that this goes some way towards helping them.

“We remain focused on delivering the plan we set out at our half year results. We continue to urge government to review the business rates system to create more of a level playing field between physical and online retailers.”