French Connection boss attacks 'absurd" business rates Stephen Marks, the boss of French Connection, has lambasted the business rates system as "absurd" but has argued that shop rent rates are even more damaging to Britain's high streets. The retail tycoon, who founded French Connection in 1972, has joined a raft of business leaders in criticising the rates system which experts say are causing retailers to go bust. Rates are absurd and what do you actually get for them," said Mr Marks in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. "Rates can be 40pc of your turnover, it can be crazy the amount you have to pay," He stopped short of calling rates, which are paid as a tax on commercial property, to be scrapped entirely. "Everybody has to pay tax," he said but he argued that the system had to be more fair. However, he criticised shop landlords for constant price rises. "The big issue is rent," he said. In America, the rent goes up with the cost of living. Here the rent goes up because the last person who's taken the shop has paid some absurd price and therefore that sets the new price. The rentals only go up. French Connection has said it plans to close 15 stores as part of a radical overhaul of the retail chain which is designed to return it to growth. However, Mr Marks says he's only been able to close a handful so far because of tough demands by landlords. "Landlords aren't the easiest people to get out of leases if you've got money in the bank," he said. If you've got five years left on your lease, they want five years of rent to get out of your lease. In some cases where we really had a major loss we've just spent a lot of money to get out of the lease. He said French Connection was "honourable about paying rent" and would "not putting the shops into administration and then going back to the landlord with a new deal, which many of our competitors have done." Last month the British Retail Consortium put together a briefing paper that said the rates system is "no longer fit for purpose." Retailers including Sir Philip Green, Justin King, and Ian Cheshire have called for business rates to be overhauled to help protect the high street. Business rates are costing the retail industry more than £7bn a year and increased by £175m in April. The BRC is pressing for a 2pc cap on business rate increases every year, rather than the current system that calculates the increase on the basis of the Retail Price