The soaring cost of business rates is blamed by some for the closure of bricks-and-mortar retailers, from national chains to local stores

Businesses have poured scorn on a Treasury proposal to scrap business rates and replace them with a land value tax.

The proposal is an attempt to save struggling high streets and will be put forward as part of a fresh review of the business rates system to be announced by Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, in his first budget.

However, business groups and rates experts said that exploring a land value tax would delay an urgently needed overhaul of the £30 billion-a-year levy.

“By the time a land value tax or any other alternative that might be considered could be delivered, many retailers will have gone to the wall and some high streets will no longer be there to be saved,” Jerry Schurder, head of business