Red tape, business rates and vape bans are at risk of pushing corner shops to the brink, writes London Assembly member Andrew Boff

The beep of the till. The hum of the fridge. A cheerful “Alright, mate” from behind the counter. It’s a soundtrack all Londoners will know. But how long will it last?

London’s corner shops are marvels of organised chaos: everything you need, nothing you don’t. These are often family businesses, passed from generation to generation, open all hours, run on wafer-thin margins and relied upon by millions — especially the elderly, low-income families and anyone not lucky enough to have a supermarket within walking distance.

The importance of corner shops

They aren’t just about convenience foods. Hundreds of thousands of Londoners have prepayment metres for utilities, meaning that access to corner shops to top up prepayment cards and keys is essential. Few things are more disheartening than getting home from work in the depths of winter, greeted by a surprise lack of electricity, and having to hike to your nearest corner shop, only to see that it had been permanently shut down the previous week.

Hundreds of corner shops face closure this year, thanks to a toxic mix of spiralling costs: soaring business rates, brutal energy bills, wage hikes and Labour’s jobs tax. As City AM reported, industry groups have warned of one of the worst weeks for overhead increases in recent memory and a survey by the

© City A.M.