Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of using the 2023 valuations for business rates with multipliers of 0.2994 up to £51,000 and 0.333 over £51,000.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties.
In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills.
At Budget, the Government announced wider reforms to business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties, reducing tax rates paid for by a higher rate on the top one per cent of most expensive properties.
The introduction of permanent, lower RHL tax rates is worth almost £1 billion to over 750,000 RHL properties. The tax rate on smaller high street businesses will be 33% lower than for businesses with the most valuable properties.
Furthermore, from April, every pub and live music venue will get 15% off its new business rates bill on top of the support announced at Budget, and then bills will be frozen in real terms for a further two years.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of ending the use of the approved guidance on valuation of public houses and introducing a standard RV calculation method for businesses.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Valuation Office uses the ‘Fair and Maintainable Trade’ methodology to assess public houses.
The Government recognises that a review of the methodology to value pubs for business rates purposes is needed. Therefore, the Government will launch a review which will explore how pubs are valued for business rates, and will engage extensively with valuation experts, businesses and their representatives.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of replacing the VOA’s 2026 Revaluation list with the 2023 valuations list.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties.
In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills.
At Budget, the Government announced wider reforms to business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties, reducing tax rates paid for by a higher rate on the top one per cent of most expensive properties.
The introduction of permanent, lower RHL tax rates is worth almost £1 billion to over 750,000 RHL properties. The tax rate on smaller high street businesses will be 33% lower than for businesses with the most valuable properties.
Furthermore, from April, every pub and live music venue will get 15% off its new business rates bill on top of the support announced at Budget, and then bills will be frozen in real terms for a further two years.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the enforcement powers available to county council Trading Standards services on tackling the sale of illegal tobacco and vaping products on the high street.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the hon member to the answer on 27 October 2025 to UIN 84365 Electronic Cigarettes and Tobacco: Smuggling.
Operation CeCe is a joint UK-wide initiative between HMRC and Trading Standards to target the illicit tobacco trade. Since it began in January 2021, the operation has removed more than 74 million illicit cigarettes, 19,750kg of hand-rolling tobacco and almost 175kg of shisha products from sale [1].
In 2023 new sanctions were introduced to support the work that Trading Standards do at retail level. They allow Trading Standards to make a referral into HMRC in relation to their tobacco seizures. HMRC can then then investigate and issue civil sanctions, including penalties of up to £10,000.
At Budget 2025, the Government set out its plans to tackle rogue retailers who breach tobacco and vape regulations, by taking the power in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to introduce a licensing scheme for retailers to sell tobacco and vape products. This will strengthen enforcement and support legitimate businesses. The government is also legislating to introduce the Vaping Duty Stamps scheme from 1 October 2026, which requires all vaping products manufactured or imported into the UK to have a duty stamp on packaging so illicit products are immediately identifiable.
[1] Over £1.4 million in penalties issued as crackdown on illegal tobacco accelerates
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department has taken to help support Trading Standards services in Suffolk in responding to organised criminal activity linked to the sale of illegal tobacco and vaping products.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the hon member to the answer on 27 October 2025 to UIN 84365 Electronic Cigarettes and Tobacco: Smuggling.
Operation CeCe is a joint UK-wide initiative between HMRC and Trading Standards to target the illicit tobacco trade. Since it began in January 2021, the operation has removed more than 74 million illicit cigarettes, 19,750kg of hand-rolling tobacco and almost 175kg of shisha products from sale [1].
In 2023 new sanctions were introduced to support the work that Trading Standards do at retail level. They allow Trading Standards to make a referral into HMRC in relation to their tobacco seizures. HMRC can then then investigate and issue civil sanctions, including penalties of up to £10,000.
At Budget 2025, the Government set out its plans to tackle rogue retailers who breach tobacco and vape regulations, by taking the power in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to introduce a licensing scheme for retailers to sell tobacco and vape products. This will strengthen enforcement and support legitimate businesses. The government is also legislating to introduce the Vaping Duty Stamps scheme from 1 October 2026, which requires all vaping products manufactured or imported into the UK to have a duty stamp on packaging so illicit products are immediately identifiable.
[1] Over £1.4 million in penalties issued as crackdown on illegal tobacco accelerates
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2026 to Question 105434 on Retail Trade: Business Rates, how many retail businesses will be impacted by transitional relief measures.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government publishes data on the number of properties receiving business rates relief. This data can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps she is taking to encourage private sector investment in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is focused on strengthening the UK economy long term by building resilient local economies and supporting household prosperity. Central to this is ensuring that places such as Surrey Heath are well placed to attract private sector investment. Our stable fiscal rules and competitive tax system enable firms to invest confidently. For example, we uphold key aspects of the corporate tax framework, including:
This government is also taking wider steps to strengthen the UK’s overall investment environment. We are reforming regulation to cut costs for businesses and regulate for growth, with measures announced last month expected to save businesses nearly £6bn by the end of the Parliament. This will free up funds for businesses to invest more in productivity, innovation and jobs.
The government has increased the capacity of public financial institutions such as the National Wealth Fund and British Business Bank by 40% to £137 billion this Parliament, using loans, equity and guarantees to support investment. This support for investment also means improving local infrastructure. Surrey will receive £38 million in Local Transport Grant funding to deliver transport improvements such as zero‑emission buses, upgraded cycleways, better accessibility and measures to tackle congestion which is a four‑fold increase in local transport funding in 2029‑30 compared with 2024‑25.
By backing all regions of the UK through measures like these, the government is creating the conditions for private sector investment and high‑quality jobs in every part of the country, including Surrey Heath. This approach is already delivering results, at the first Regional Investment Summit in October, over £10 billion of investment commitments were announced, and nearly 1,000 high‑quality jobs are set to be created. Since coming into government, firms have committed over £340 billion of private investment into the UK.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to apply the findings of the 2025 Green Book Review to help ensure that transport schemes in rural areas like Cornwall receive adequate funding.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The government is changing the Green Book and how it is used to make sure that every region is given a fair hearing when it comes to investment.
That is why a shorter, more streamlined version of the Green Book will be published soon.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 4 December 2025, to Question 95882, on Alcoholic Drinks: Excise Duties, for what reason CPI is used to calculate business rates.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The national business rates multipliers uprate by the previous September’s CPI figure every April.
Business rates make up a quarter of Local Authority core spending power and support critical local services, including child and adult social care. Indexing the business rates multipliers in between revaluations helps to maintain the real-terms value of this revenue to fund these services.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January to Question 105303 on Business Rates: Valuation, with reference to the oral evidence from Jonathan Russell and John-Paul Marks to the Treasury Select Committee of 13 January 2026, how many data drops of ratings (a) information and (b) analysis did her department receive from the VOA in each month since January 2025.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The VOA share data with MHCLG as part of the policy development process.