The newly formed group, the Retail Job Alliance, announced this morning that it had written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak and was writing to him on behalf of organisations employing more than 1m people, or a third of the industry's workforce.

The alliance has been set up by some of the UK’s largest companies which include supermarket chains Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Morrisons, as well as a co-operative conglomerate, Kingfisher, Waterstones, and food chain Greggs, as well as several retail trade bodies.

The call for reform to the business rates system is not new as many companies have urged the Treasury for reform however, the fact that some of the UK’s biggest employers and powerful retail names have joined together is a new and significant step in the fight for reform.