John Lewis Partnership chair Jason Tarry has joined other retail leaders in opposing a proposed “warehouse tax”, arguing in The Telegraph that higher property taxes on large premises would fall on department stores and supermarkets rather than online-only operators. Retail Gazette reported the intervention on 12 October 2026, ahead of a Budget on 28 October.
Business rates are the property tax paid by the occupier of a non-domestic building, and they are set separately in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The proposal described by Retail Gazette is referred to as a “warehouse tax”, and the report gives no rate and does not state which nation or nations it would cover.
The partnership, which owns John Lewis and Waitrose, is employee-owned and has no franchise route, so the story concerns the wider cost base of multi-site retail rather than franchising, though business rates fall just as heavily on the operators behind brands recruiting partners in the UK.
What the John Lewis chair argued
Jason Tarry, chair of the John Lewis Partnership, wrote that the plans show a “fundamental misunderstanding of how modern high streets work”. He argued that higher property taxes on large stores would hit department stores and supermarkets, while online-only operators would be spared, and that the cost would then reach smaller shops, cafés and restaurants that depend on the footfall large stores generate. He called on the Government to ensure that no high street shop faces higher taxes under future business rates changes.
Stuart Machin, chief executive of Marks & Spencer, also called for changes to business rates, saying retailers already carry a disproportionate share of the tax burden. Retail Gazette refers to a “slew of retail leaders” making similar points without naming the others.
The figures the partnership put forward
The John Lewis Partnership pays about £170m a year in business rates, its largest tax expense and its second-largest cost after wages. Changes to the rating system have left more than 200 John Lewis and Waitrose shops facing higher charges, against 18 of its distribution centres, so that around 80% of the additional burden falls on shops. The partnership is investing £50m in John Lewis stores this year, plans three new Waitrose branches and will refurbish 28 more.
The distinction between shops and distribution centres is central to the argument. Large retailers operate both, and the partnership’s figures are presented as evidence that the rating changes bear more heavily on shops than on the warehouses the proposal is named after. The report presents these as the partnership’s own figures, and no independent calculation or response from the Treasury is quoted in the article.
Footfall and the Budget backdrop
The intervention follows a weak September for shop visits. The BRC-Sensormatic Footfall Monitor recorded a 2.9% fall for the five weeks to 3 October, and Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, urged the Chancellor not to raise business rates again, arguing that rising costs limit retailers’ investment, a pressure shared by the food and drink brands recruiting UK operators whose franchisees carry the rates bill on each site. The Budget is due on 28 October 2026.
What is reported on the Treasury position
Retail Gazette cites Sky News as reporting that, after Tarry’s intervention, the Treasury is understood to have ruled out further tax increases on warehouses at the Budget. Retail Gazette does not confirm that independently, and no Treasury statement is quoted. Until the Budget is delivered, the scope, rate and territorial reach of any change to business rates on large premises remain unpublished.
