The BRC has released its response to the three main parties' manifestos, which were published this week in the run up to May's general election.
The issues that surrounded last month's budget remain high on the agenda for all parties, including ongoing debates over National Insurance contributions and business rates.

The BRC has welcomed the Conservative pledge to "stop the most damaging part of the National Insurance rise for employers and for anyone earning under £35,000" but says the entire increase planned from April 2011 should be scrapped.

The Labour party still intends to raise National Insurance by one penny, which BRC director general Stephen Robertson has called a tax on jobs. "It would add £220m to retailers' costs," he said. "It would make it more expensive for retailers to employ people, undermining their ability to maintain and create jobs and preventing them maximising their contribution to the recovery."

The Liberal Democrats have recognised that the increase is a "damaging tax on jobs" and have promised to reverse it "when resources allow".

The Tories plan to give councils new powers to introduce further discounts on business rates, which the BRC welcomes, as long as the proposal genuinely leads to lower tax bills overall.

The Lib Dems have also pledged to "reform business rates, creating a fairer system where rates are based on site values rather then rental values and are the responsibility of local authorities."

Mr Robertson said: "It's vital for retailers that the overall cumulative business rates burden is affordable... We'd be extremely concerned if local control of business rates led to greater uncertainty for retailers operating in large numbers of local authority areas and undermined their ability to make investment decisions."

Green issues are also on the agenda for Labour and the Lib Dems, with the BRC welcoming Labour's aim to create 400,000 new green jobs by 2015. Mr Robertson said: "It's important green jobs are generated as pat of the recovery plan, as well as efforts to reach Britain's ambitious carbon targets by 2020 and beyond."