The row about Amazon and its tax arrangements has also cast a spotlight on the elephant in the room, namely the soaring cost of business rate, which, now that half of it has been localised, is increasingly local government's headache even though it has no control over it.
This week, Policy Exchange, the right of centre think-tank which has an ear in government, proposed that business rate be frozen. Its aim is to help the hard-pressed retail sector which pays out £7bn in business rate each year.
