Business Rates Hardship Fund

Baroness Rebuck Excerpts

Wednesday 19th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[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.