The chancellor is gearing up to offer a £1.5 billion relief package to shore up embattled High Street retailers in today’s Budget.

In his speech this afternoon, the Treasury is briefing that Philip Hammond will announce an immediate cut to business rate bills by almost a third for almost half a million small retailers, worth £900m.

There will also be £650 million set aside for urgent upgrades to transport and infrastructure that support smaller shops and businesses, along with redevelopment of empty shops into office space or housing.

In addition, he is expected to announce a relaxation of planning laws to enable non-retail premises such as hotels, pubs and restaurant businesses to hold weddings.

Responding to the pre-Budget announcement, the British Retail Consortium stated: “While we hugely welcome the temporary support being given to small businesses, these measures alone are not sufficient to enable a successful reinvention of our high streets.

"Retailers are currently in the midst of a perfect storm of technology changing how people shop, rising public policy costs and softening demand. Struggling high streets require a broader outlook in order to thrive, particularly given the majority of the UK's 3.1 million retail workers are employed in businesses that will not benefit from this announcement.”

The trade body also labelled the taxation on retail businesses unsustainable and called for “less tinkering” and more wide-ranging reforms to stem the tide of shop closures.

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