Local Government Finance Act 1988 (Prescription of Non-Domestic Rating Multipliers) (England) Regulations 2026
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The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Livermore) (Lab)
My Lords, this debate will also consider the take-note Motion tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Clement- Jones, on the Non-Domestic Rating (Definition of Qualifying Retail, Hospitality or Leisure Hereditament) Regulations 2025.
These statutory instruments form part of a wider package of legislation that gives effect to the new business rates multipliers for qualifying retail, hospitality, leisure and high-value properties. I thank the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee for the detailed and thoughtful consideration of these statutory instruments in its 40th and 48th reports. Business rates are based on a property’s rateable value and a multiplier for each tax year. In the Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced a comprehensive set of reforms to the business rates system in England, including the introduction of three additional multipliers from April 2026.
The three new multipliers are: a small business retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier for qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure properties with rateable values below £51,000; a standard retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier for qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure properties with rateable values of £51,000 to £499,999; and a high-value multiplier for properties with rateable values of £500,000 and above. In the Budget last November, the Government announced the rates for these new multipliers. These new rates will deliver permanently low multipliers for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties with rateable values below £500,000.
The Local Government Finance Act 1988 (Prescription of Non-Domestic Rating Multipliers) (England) Regulations 2026 prescribe the circumstances in which the new multipliers will apply. The new multipliers will replace the pandemic-era retail, leisure and hospitality reliefs that currently apply. These reliefs were introduced on a temporary basis in 2020, recognising the exceptional circumstances of the time. Continuing these reliefs would cost around £1.7 billion per year. The new multipliers will benefit over 750,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties. However, unlike the existing relief, they are permanent, thereby providing businesses with greater certainty and support. They are also not subject to a cash cap, meaning that all qualifying properties in a retail, hospitality and leisure chain can benefit. Taking into account the upcoming business rates revaluation, the tax rate that retail, hospitality and leisure properties on the small business multiplier will pay next year will fall by nearly 12p overall. Similarly, the rate for retail, hospitality and leisure properties on the standard multiplier will fall by 12.5p compared with what they are paying now.
To ensure that support for the high street is sustainable, the Government will fund these new multipliers through higher rates on the top 1% of properties, those with rateable values of £500,000 and above. From April, the most valuable properties, such as large distribution warehouses occupied by online giants, will pay a tax rate that is 33% higher than that paid by small high street properties.
I turn to the Motion laid by the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, which relates to the Non-Domestic Rating (Definition of Qualifying Retail, Hospitality or Leisure Hereditament) Regulations 2025. These regulations set out the eligibility for the new multipliers and passed into law last year. The Government’s objective in setting these regulations was to reflect the same definition for eligibility as the existing retail, hospitality and leisure relief. We want sectors that benefited under the previous relief to continue benefiting under this new relief. For example, under the existing relief, businesses benefit if they are wholly or mainly used for retail, hospitality or leisure purposes. That includes the sale of most goods, services, food and drink or entertainment as well as accommodation to the public. These requirements are the same under the new relief.
Similarly, under the existing relief, businesses benefited only where they were used for in-person activity. The same principles apply under the statutory instrument that we passed last year. The Government have retained the same approach to ensure continuity in our support for the sector while making this support permanent and uncapped.
The new multipliers are being introduced alongside a revaluation of non-domestic properties, which the Valuation Office Agency carries out independently every three years. Currently, property values are based on values from 2021, during the pandemic. Values were generally lower at this time due to the unusual economic situation that the pandemic created. Many properties are therefore seeing their rateable values increase at this revaluation, reflecting post-pandemic recovery.
To support affected businesses, the Government announced in the Budget a significant support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years. First, we are implementing transitional relief, which will cap increases next year by 5% for the smallest properties and up to 30% for the largest properties. Secondly, we are expanding the supporting small business scheme. Currently, the scheme caps the bill increases of those losing some or all their small business rates relief or rural rates relief. We are expanding it to those which are currently eligible for the 40% retail, hospitality and leisure relief. The supporting small business scheme will cap bill increases at the relevant transitional relief cap or £800 per year, whichever is higher.
Together, these schemes will mean that the majority of properties facing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest. Even after the revaluation, around a third of properties will pay no business rates at all as they receive 100% small business rate relief. A further 85,000 properties will benefit from reduced business rates as this relief tapers. We have also extended the small business rate relief second property grace period from one year to three years, to support small businesses as they grow.
Following the Budget, concerns were raised about how the valuation methodology for pubs was applied. We have listened and responded to those concerns by launching a review into how pubs are valued for business rates. This review will also cover how hotels are valued and will include extensive engagement from valuation experts, businesses and their representatives. It will report in time for any decisions that follow to be implemented for the 2029 revaluation.
In the meantime, we are taking steps to support pubs for not only next year but the next three years. From April, pubs and live music venues will receive 15% off their new business rates bill on top of the support announced in the Budget. Bills will then be frozen in real terms for a further two years. This support is worth around £1,650 to the average pub and will mean around three-quarters of pubs seeing their bills either falling or remaining the same next year. This decision will mean that the amount of business rates paid by the pub sector as a whole will be 8% lower in 2028-29 than it is today.
The Government are also committed to going further to reform the business rates system to incentivise more investment. That is why we published a call for evidence on the next phase of business rates reform in November last year; that consultation will close later this month, and the Government will respond in due course. We recognise that transforming the business rates system is a multi-year process, and we are committed to working with stakeholders throughout this process to achieve meaningful change.
The reforms being delivered through these statutory instruments will benefit over 750,000 properties across England while ensuring that the top 1% most expensive properties, including those used by online giants, pay their fair share. They will support investment and create a fairer business rates system. I beg to move.
Lord Clement-Jones (LD)
My Lords, I wish to speak to the Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.
I have not secured this debate to oppose the Government’s ambition to support the high street. Permanent lower multipliers for retail, hospitality and leisure are, in principle, a welcome step towards stability. Instead, I have tabled this Motion to highlight a critical flaw in the definition of who qualifies for this support. By drawing the lines of eligibility too narrowly, these regulations inadvertently exclude the engine room of our £8 billion music industry and the R&D hubs of our visual arts sector, threatening the very existence of the UK’s grass-roots creative infrastructure.
Our recording studios face a perfect storm and I know that the noble friends of the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Brennan, and the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, are both very supportive of what we are trying to highlight today and regret that they unavoidably cannot be here to say so. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, would also want to say something if he were able and did not have other engagements. Under the 2026 revaluation, which coincides with these new multipliers, these businesses face an average increase in rateable value of 45%, with some seeing hikes of nearly 100%. Simultaneously, because Regulation 3 excludes them from the retail, hospitality and leisure RHL category, they are denied the lower tax multiplier that their neighbours on the high street will receive.
The Music Producers Guild has provided alarming evidence that 50% of studios surveyed are considering closure within the next year. These businesses operate on ultra-thin margins, often requiring 85% occupancy just to break even. They compete in a global market. If it becomes too expensive to record here, artists will simply move to eastern Europe or the United States. We are already seeing top UK artists recording major projects abroad. The urgency cannot be overstated. I have seen correspondence from the Music Venue Trust highlighting a terrifying reality: directors of these businesses are running their figures for April and realising they will be insolvent. Under HMRC rules, to continue trading would constitute what is called fiscal recklessness, risking personal liability. This means we risk a wave of closures before the first bills even land, simply because the Government have failed to provide certainty.
Let me draw the Committee’s attention to the 40th report of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. The committee explicitly noted the submissions from UK Music and the Music Producers Guild regarding this exclusion. The committee highlighted a glaring inconsistency in government policy. Film and TV studios currently benefit from a specific 40% business rates relief, which the Treasury confirmed will continue. The SLSC invited this House to question the Minister on this matter, so on what basis does the Treasury protect the infrastructure of our film industry while the infrastructure of our music industry, facing identical economic pressures, is left to face what the sector describes as an existential threat?
The Government’s justification for excluding these studios is that they are not reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public. I must challenge this, using the Government’s own guidance. Paragraph 22 lists funeral directors, shoe repairers and key cutters as eligible because they constitute the provision of a service. Recording studios are functionally identical: they provide a specialist service accessible to any member of the public willing to pay for it, be that a professional band, a local choir or a community group. Do the public browse a funeral parlour? No, they book a specific service. A recording studio is no different. If a key cutter qualifies, surely a recording studio does too.
We know that the Government can act when the system creates anomalies. Just weeks ago, following concerns regarding pubs, the Chancellor announced a 15% reduction in bills and a freeze for two years. The Minister in the other place, referring to music venues, said:
“It would not be right to seek to draw the line in a way that includes some and not others”.—[Official Report, Commons, 27/1/26; col. 771.]
Yet that is exactly what these regulations do: they support the venue where music is performed but tax the studio where music is created out of existence. The music ecosystem is a pipeline: if you destroy the creation phase, you eventually starve the venues. The Chancellor justified the pub relief by calling pubs “community assets”. If that is the test, studios that host community choirs, youth education projects and amateur bands must surely pass it.
Reports suggest that the Chancellor is resisting wider relief for hotels and restaurants because she cannot afford to support every business. I understand that constraint, but we are not talking about thousands of hotels; we are speaking of roughly 500 recording studios. The cost must be negligible compared with the £300 million package announced for pubs, yet the value to the £8 billion music industry is existential.
Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)
My Lords, we had to hit pause, but I shall resist the temptation to hit rewind and repeat what I said. I was echoing the points that have been made: a lot of the problems here are with the way the Valuation Office Agency tries to understand the particular nature of these important businesses. At the very helpful meeting with the noble Baroness, Lady Twycross—which the noble Lord, Lord Freyberg, alluded to—we heard from a lot of people across the sector. They are frustrated that they have one conversation with the Government but hear something different from the Valuation Office Agency. If there is a way to short-circuit that, I know that they would appreciate it.
There is also the broader question of how the Government value and account for things. Can the Minister say whether, in bringing these measures forward in the discussions that His Majesty’s Treasury had with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, he was able to talk to the team there that works on the culture and heritage capital programme? That team is working to arrive at a Green Book-compliant way of valuing the wider benefits that we have heard about. That includes the social benefits of our cultural infrastructure in terms of not just our physical and mental health and well-being or tackling isolation and loneliness, particularly in rural areas or areas of deprivation, but trying to put a value on inspiring the future generations of musicians, artists and others.
It seems that the decision here runs counter to the Government’s noble aims in their creative industries sector plan to grow what are already world-leading sectors for the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, they are precarious and challenged by a number of global competitors, which are breathing very heavily down our necks. As the noble Lord, Lord Watson of Wyre Forest, said, we have a very delicate ecology and ecosystem in these sectors, and it is very important that we all do everything we can to maintain that.
Lord Clement-Jones (LD)
My Lords, I am not quite sure, as the procedure is rather arcane, but I think I manage to get a very quick wind-up. The positive thing today is that we have heard so much about our music ecosystem, and people have been celebrating that. The noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, was absolutely right when he talked about the impact of Covid—the perfect storm, in a sense, of inflation, national insurance and so on—but that ecosystem is hanging on. It is still there, and it is absolutely fundamental to the music industry. In a sense, that is the good news; the bad news is that some of the issues we have been talking about today on business rates are going to kill what the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, called the critical creative infrastructure.
Grass-roots Music Venues
Lord Clement-Jones Excerpts(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Lord Livermore (Lab)
I am grateful to my noble friend for the question. I am very happy to meet the groups that he mentioned. He is absolutely right to say that the creative sector is extremely important to the UK economy. It is a major employer and a significant part of our economy. It has been included as a priority sector in our industrial strategy, recognising its high growth potential, particularly through the development and adoption of new technologies.
On business rates, which my noble friend raised, as I have said before in your Lordships’ House, I acknowledge that the revaluation means that sectors such as pubs and music venues will struggle in relation to the business rates applicable to them. That is why we are working with the sectors involved to ensure they get the support they need. Noble Lords will have heard what the Prime Minister and Chancellor said on this in recent days. I will not add to that or comment on any speculation, but where there are further comments to be made I will of course come back to your Lordships’ House to discuss them.
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)
My Lords, there is plenty of time. We will hear from the Lib Dems next, then the Conservative Benches.
Lord Clement-Jones (LD)
My Lords, given that the Music Producers Guild reports that 50% of recording studios are considering closure within the year, with rateable value increases of up to 100%, will the Minister commit to urgently reviewing their exclusion from the retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier, and their misclassification as office space by the Valuation Office Agency, particularly given that film studios, which are similarly not public-facing, already benefit from 40% targeted relief?
Lord Livermore (Lab)
The Government have been very clear that the lower multipliers will broadly reflect the scope of the current retail, hospitality and leisure business rates relief, which is centred around retail, hospitality and leisure properties that are reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public. If a recording studio forms part of a single property with a qualifying hospitality or retail business, and the hospitality or retail aspect is the main purpose of the property, it will qualify for the lower multipliers.
Competition and Markets Authority Chairman
Lord Clement-Jones Excerpts(1 year, 1 month ago)
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Lord Clement-Jones (LD)
My Lords, I welcome the Minister to Questions. The Chancellor has said that every regulator, no matter in what sector, has a part to play by tearing down the regulatory barriers that hold back growth. Given the Minister’s background, she will understand the benefits of strong and healthy competition in the digital economy, particularly for SMEs. What assurance can she give the House that the sacking of the chair of the CMA and the appointment of Doug Gurr, a former country head of Amazon, which itself is subject to current and recent CMA investigations, will not lead to weaker competition and consumer protection enforcement? Are the Government still committed to the new digital markets regime that we have all taken several years to install? Are they now going soft on US big tech in a whole range of digital services—operating systems, app stores, browsers, search engines, digital advertising and cloud services—or are we meant now to include our UK SMEs among the so-called blockers?
Baroness Gustafsson (Lab)
I thank the noble Lord for his question, which I have broken down into four points that I hope to address. First, I thank him for his welcome; it is very much appreciated, and it is a pleasure to be here answering questions in front of noble Lords. Secondly, I do not accept the characterisation of us sacking the chair of the CMA; Marcus Bokkerink resigned as chair and the Government are committed to the operational independence of the CMA. Thirdly, on whether the CMA is going soft, especially regarding digital markets, the CMA has new powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act and is already using them fervently for investigations into Google and Apple. The Government are committed to the independence of the CMA and making sure that we create an industry that is open to free and fair competition.
Queen’s Speech
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Lord Clement-Jones (LD)
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft. I agree with much of what she said.
These debates are often much more about what is not in the gracious Speech than what is in it, especially in the context of business and the economy. The UK’s creative industries have been one of the great success stories of the past five years. Significant policies benefiting these industries were developed during the coalition Government. I pay tribute to Vince Cable for all his work as the Business Secretary.
I want to see creative businesses continue to thrive across the whole country so that our economy can continue to reap the benefits. It is vital that we do not lose the momentum. Will this Government build on the achievements of the last? That is the question. I welcome the fact that both the Minister and Ed Vaizey are Ministers shared jointly now by DCMS and BIS to ensure that creative industry policy is fully joined up. To maintain that momentum we need to encourage clustering of creative businesses developed through alliances between central government, local authorities, universities and the private sector in our major cities. Our cities and many counties need greater powers, especially over finance. I therefore welcome in principle the proposed cities and local government Bill as part of the Government’s northern powerhouse strategy. I add my welcome to that of others to the noble Lord, Lord O’Neill, whose presence in government is so welcome and whose passion for delivery of the northern powerhouse strategy is so apparent.
The noble Baroness and Ed Vaizey represent valuable continuity for the sector. I welcome John Whittingdale to his new role, with his enthusiasm for intellectual property and live music in particular, and his background of 10 years as Culture, Media and Sport Committee chairman. I am sure that a brief spell for Sajid Javid at the DCMS has given him a useful insight into the fundamental relationship between the arts and our creative industries.
Many noble Lords have talked about development of digital skills being vital. Expansion of digital platforms has highlighted the growing convergence of creative content and the tech sector. Skills in the arts and sciences are increasingly drawn together. Will the Government promote the value of creative subjects in schools and ensure that they are rewarded for offering a broad and balanced curriculum? The number of apprenticeships created and taken up in the creative industries has expanded hugely in the past few years. I hope that they will enhance the co-ordination of action on skills by merging the two skills councils, Creative and Cultural Skills and Creative Skillset, into a single powerful and effective body. Will the Home Office break the habit of a lifetime and ensure with BIS that the tech and creative industries are able to fill the gaps in high-end skills, from abroad if necessary?
As we have heard today, our broadcasters are the linchpin of the creative industries and there are some key questions in that regard. Will the Government maintain Channel 4 in public ownership? Will they follow up the consultations started in March on Section 73 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, which requires public service broadcasters to give away their most valuable product—their channels—to the pay-TV cable platform in the UK, and repeal it? We had a mini debate on the BBC today and contributions on the BBC were made yesterday. Under John Whittingdale’s chairmanship, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee produced a valuable report on the future of the BBC with many useful observations and recommendations, including on governance and extension of the licence fee to iPlayer-only users, which can, and no doubt will, be taken forward into the charter discussions—and so too, I hope, will the committee’s views on the need for open and transparent discussions on the charter. Will there be a full and open debate on any decriminalisation proposals and will the potential financial cost of such a policy to the BBC be fully recognised? We need strenuously to protect the independence of the BBC. Currently, the licence fee is the best way of doing that. However, that does not mean that it needs to rise faster than inflation.
Investment in the UK’s creative industries can only really make a difference if their intellectual property rights, particularly those relating to the protection of their online materials, are properly understood and enforced. It was good to see the acknowledgement in the Conservative manifesto of the importance of intellectual property and of proper behaviour by search engines. However, I was rather baffled by some of the statements in the manifesto. It says:
“We will protect intellectual property by continuing to require internet service providers to block sites that carry large amounts of illegal content”.
I do not recall that we were able to persuade the last Government to bring in any legislation to do that. The legislation remained unenforced on the books, so I think there are questions to be asked about that. Is it not crucial that we should educate consumers on the importance of intellectual property and support initiatives designed to get voluntary agreement from the advertisers and credit card companies not to advertise on infringing sites? Will the Government continue to support the long-term funding of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, or PIPCU, which carries out such vital work? Will they increase sanctions relating to online offences in line with the recent government review of penalties for online copyright infringement, Penalty Fair?
I regret that we shall spend the next two years arguing about membership of the EU. I hope that, at the same time, the Minister will find time to work with our EU partners to ensure that proposals for copyright reform as part of the single digital market proposals do not damage our creative industries by limiting territorial licensing.
I very much hope that the Government will continue discussions with artists and creators on extending the law governing unfair contracts to include intellectual property contracts. I very much hope that, when possible under EU law, the application of public lending rights to remote e-lending will be extended.
I have little time left but I very much hope that the Government will continue to promote the value of live music despite the powers created in the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act, which are already being used disproportionately. I agree 100% with the noble Baroness, Lady Liddell, and with the comments made by my noble friend Lord Lee yesterday, on the importance of our tourism industry, which so far, even after five years of the last Government, has been treated as a Cinderella and holds such promise for job creation in the years up to 2020. Time will tell. I look forward to future debates and discussion on all these policy areas.
Money Laundering: UK Parliamentarians
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Lord Clement-Jones
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will make representations about the inclusion of United Kingdom parliamentarians under the definition of “Politically Exposed Persons” in the European Commission’s proposed fourth Money Laundering Directive.
The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Deighton) (Con)
My Lords, while UK parliamentarians are not currently considered to be “politically exposed persons”—or PEPs—domestically, revised global standards to which the UK is fully committed will require that they are treated as such. These global standards require enhanced due diligence and ongoing monitoring only when the business relationship is assessed as high risk. The UK will make representations when negotiating the fourth money laundering directive to ensure that it reflects these standards.
Lord Clement-Jones (LD)
My Lords, I am afraid that my noble friend’s response is only partly reassuring. Even before the fourth directive has come in, many Members of this House and their relatives are being treated as PEPs. I myself and my son were unable to access an ATM and my brother was unable to exercise a joint power of attorney. What steps is the Treasury taking to show Members of Parliament in both Houses that in future they will not be treated in exactly the same way as a deposed dictator or a political pariah?
Lord Deighton
My Lords, the key here is in the approach of the banks in doing their due diligence appropriately. The main feature of these arrangements is that domestic PEPs should be assessed in terms of their level of risk, and in the main UK parliamentarians should be assessed as low risk and, frankly, treated in precisely the same way as any other customer. The problem is when banks do not apply the right kind of risk-based assessment and instead revert to inappropriate box-ticking approaches.
Education: English Baccalaureate Certificate
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Lord Clement-Jones
My Lords, I, too, welcome the debate initiated by the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, and I congratulate him on his fine opening speech. At a recent meeting of the All-Party Group for Music Education, the chief executive of the Incorporated Society of Musicians reported that 80 organisations, including the BRIT School, Shakespeare’s Globe, the National Portrait Gallery and many others, supported what is now called the “Bacc for the Future” campaign.
I have never seen the creative sector so united against what appears to be a two-tier approach by the Government to educational qualifications. When the result of the consultation comes through, it will undoubtedly show a massive negative sentiment. Arts and cultural subjects have not been in a good place for some years. The Cultural Learning Alliance reports a steady decline in the number of young people studying arts and cultural subjects.
Now, as a result of the EBacc, the performance measure that is not to be confused with the future EBC, schools are cutting art, dance, drama, music and design and technology even further, as many noble Lords, including the noble Earl and the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, have demonstrated and as the Ipsos survey made so clear.
This is all completely at odds with the Henley review of cultural education, let alone his earlier review of music education, and the Government’s response, which, on the face of it, was so positive. A national plan is due to be published soon. How does the Minister reconcile this in the face of the marginalisation of arts subjects? As Jude Law, the actor, said:
“The arts must not be allowed to become a middle-class pursuit”.
As the noble Earl and my noble friend Lord Storey mentioned, there is already a disproportionate withdrawal of these subjects in schools with a high proportion of free school meals.
The fact is that we need to reverse this trend. My noble friend Lord Storey mentioned that the CBI and others have expressed concerns. There will be fewer songwriters, composers, musicians, creators, creative professionals and even appreciative audiences, which will damage the creative industries as a whole just when we are relying on them to make an even greater contribution to our future prosperity. They are uniquely important in this country. Have we not conclusively demonstrated that with our Olympic and Paralympic opening and closing ceremonies?
I hope that the Government appreciate that there is huge demand in this House and outside for the arts to be included as a sixth pillar in the EBC; for drama, dance, film and media to be included in the national curriculum. I further hope that the Government, particularly the Secretary of State, listen to the points made by the “Bacc for the Future” campaign and by this House.
Tobacco: Smuggling
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Lord Clement-Jones
My Lords, following the split of UKBA in the wake of the Vine report, will its successor bodies be able to implement the 2011 strategy and also the new FCTC protocol that has just been agreed?
Lord Sassoon
My Lords, I can point to the success over the past decade of HMRC in particular, helped by the contribution of the UKBA, and it will be the same people, however configured, carrying on. As I have explained, money has been specifically targeted. As my noble friend also indicates, under the World Health Organisation there is a legally binding international treaty, which will also contribute to the further drive in this area.