Could Tesco’s digital sales tax save the high street?

Such a tax could level the playing field but stopping the retail apocalypse in its tracks will need more action, writes James Moore

The grocery giant has proposed that a 1 per cent tax be placed on online competitors (Getty)

Tesco could hardly have better timed the release of its idea of a digital sales tax to help level the high street’s playing field versus its online rivals.

The grocer’s proposal emerged on the day that another 2,450 job losses were announced as online specialist BooHoo bought Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton from the administrators of Sir Philip Green’s failed Arcadia empire. 

BooHoo, an online specialist, wanted the brands, not the stores. The same was true of its recent purchase of Debenhams and of the acquisition of Topshop, which had been the jewel in Arcadia’s high street crown, and associated brands by its fast fashion rival Asos.