The run-up to Christmas is the busiest time of the year for many retailers and is the time the high street needs to put their best foot forward and use maintenance services to make their stores the best they can be.

There is perhaps no point where the competition for shopper attention and by extension financial revenue is higher, and in that regard, there is the potential for help to arrive in the form of a tax on online retailers, according to The Retail Gazette.

At this stage, it must be noted that any proposals are in the pre-consultation stage, so they are unlikely to provide immediate relief this shopping season, but they could provide some respite for the next.

This would take the form of raising business rates on warehouses and fulfilment centres used by online retailers, in order to “level the playing field”.

The question of how online retail affects the high street is one that has been asked for over two decades at this point, compounded by the retail apocalypse of the early 2010s and a mandated closure of non-essential retail in 2020 that continued to have ripple effects into 2021 and 2022.

The current system of business rates is based on the value of a property, which is necessarily far lower for an out-of-town dark supermarket, fulfilment centre or warehouse than it is for a high-street location with a lot of valuable footfall.

The result is that, taken as a whole, it costs far more for a physical store to sell to a customer compared to an online store, which can be reflected in prices.

One option is to look at an online sales tax or a levy on deliveries that would encourage more in-person shopping, but it is unknown when or if any policies will be launched until the Autumn Budget provides some degree of clarity.