Business Rates: Retail, Hospitality and Leisure

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

That is an excellent question. Of course, we have separate strategies for the retail, hospitality and leisure sector. With the industrial strategy, we are trying to do something different from what that strategy is doing. Just because a sector is not in the industrial strategy, that does not mean we do not value that sector extremely highly and do all we can for it.

[Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)]

My Lords, there are many charity shops in the high streets across this country. They receive 80% mandatory relief and often up to 100% discretionary. Many of these charities are actually multimillion-pound businesses. Notwithstanding the pressures on the high street and the pressures on small businesses, obviously, with these forthcoming increases, does the Minister agree that perhaps it is about time that we looked into this issue to make sure that those on the high street are paying a fair rate for their business rates?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I do not disagree with what the noble Baroness says. It is very important to say that we are fundamentally reforming the business rates system by introducing permanently lower business tax rates for more than 750,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties, funded by a higher rate on the most valuable properties. I think that is absolutely the right thing to do.