Will business rates hike be final chapter for high street bookshops?

Booksellers group says rise will kill off independent stores and berates Treasury for cutting tax for sector’s biggest online rival Amazon

Bookshops could be wiped off the high street as a result of changes to the business rates system, the industry has warned the Treasury.

In a letter to David Gauke, chief secretary to the Treasury, the Booksellers Association said many bookshops will be crippled by rate increases and described the tax as “archaic”.

Related: The destruction of Britain’s high streets is no accident | Simon Jenkins

Related: Small shops recoil in the face of business rates that will more than double

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