BRC backs retailer demands for monthly rent payments
- Published: 21 July 2008 15:14
- Author: Marino Donati
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- Last Updated: 22 July 2008 09:37
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Next is among retailers putting pressure on landlords to let it pay monthly rents
The British Retail Consortium has welcomed retailers' renewed calls for monthly rent payments.
Arcadia, Next and Debenhams are among businesses giving renewed impetus to the campaign to get landlords to accept payments on a monthly rather than quarterly basis, to help ease cash flow during the slowdown in consumer spending.
Retail bosses are getting together to force landlords to accept their changes. The BRC says that its similar two-year campaign for monthyl rents has led to monthly terms becoming the norm on new and re-signed leases. But it added that cash flow difficulties had become more significant in the worsening economic environment which had brought the issue back to the fore.
It wants landlords to offer more flexibility on existing leases.
BRC director general Stephen Robertson said: "The BRC has made significant progress in establishing monthly rents as the norm but today's tough trading conditions mean the impact of quarterly leases still out there is that much greater."
Robertson added: "Requiring rents three months in advance is at odds with standard business practice. It's a historic and costly practice, rooted in the days when communication was governed by the speed of a horse."
