Retail industry heavyweights led by Sir Philip Green and Lord Harris are set to meet landlords next month with a shopping list of demands for wide-ranging rent reform.
Under mounting pressure from the consumer downturn, retailers have hit on the idea of paying their property costs monthly rather than quarterly in advance to help manage cash flows.
Lord Harris and other retailers are also agitating for lower service charges and a wholesale review of the way leases are structured, causing some concern in the property sector that any concessions given to the shopkeepers will have to be extended to other tenants.
'Philip Green and I, we said we were going to talk to some people. We’ve got practically every big retailer [on board]. We’re going to meet in the next four weeks some of the landlords,' said Lord Harris, chairman and chief executive of Carpetright.
Financial Times, The Independent
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