Business Rates Hardship Fund Debate
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Baroness Rebuck
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Business Rates Hardship Fund
Baroness Rebuck Excerpts(7 years, 4 months ago)
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Baroness Rebuck (Lab)
My Lords, would the Minister comment on the cultural consequences of the 275 towns that will lose their bookshops—sometimes their only bookshop?
Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
My Lords, the discretionary relief scheme is just that: it is discretionary for local authorities to come up with their own criteria. We want them to be innovative. I have great personal sympathy with the point that the noble Baroness made. I am a great user of independent bookshops. One can think of many areas where bookshops are vital to a town, but that is something for the local authority to respond to. They can do that by being creative within their own scheme.