Covid-19: Financial Support for High Street Retailers Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Lord Flight
Main Page: Lord Flight (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Flight's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Covid-19: Financial Support for High Street Retailers
Lord Flight Excerpts(4 years ago)
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Lord Flight (Con)
My Lords, can the Government consider placing out-of-town retailers on a comparable basis to high-street retailers with regard to business rates? There has long been a perceived position of overtaxing high streets and undertaxing out-of-town businesses.
Lord Callanan (Con)
My noble friend makes an important point. Business rates are based on the rateable value of non-residential properties, and rateable value is a measure of the property’s annual open-market rental value, as assessed by the Valuation Office Agency. Clearly, with the move towards out-of-town shopping centres and online retailers, this is an area ripe for urgent review, and we are doing that.