Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill

Debate between Lord Fox and Lord Jamieson

Report stage
Tuesday 18th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Fox (LD)]

My Lords, all the amendments in this group provide for reviews of different aspects of the Bill. In moving Amendment 21, I will speak to Amendment 33 in my name and that of the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock.

It is very clear from everything that we have heard in Committee and on Report that we are still very much in the dark as to how this Bill, when it becomes an Act, will affect our high streets. It was billed from the beginning as a measure that would save our high streets—that was clearly how it was marketed in the Commons. However, without the details that we seek, and without the context of those details, we really do not understand.

The differences between these several amendments are, more or less, on the timing of when the review would happen. In our Amendment 21, the timing is that, before the Act comes into force:

“The Secretary of State must publish and lay before Parliament an assessment of the impact of sections 1 to 4 of this Act on businesses, high streets, and economic growth”.


If the Government are serious about their assertion that they are going to save our high streets, they need to be able to support that. Nothing the Minister has said at any point has underpinned that this will save our high streets.

An impact assessment must consider the impact on different types of businesses, including small ones, and the impact on businesses operating mainly or solely on high streets, and whether the provisions will have a measurable impact on economic growth. That is the key because, from everything my noble friend and others have said, it seems that at the end of this process most businesses will be paying more in rates than they are currently paying—and how that delivers any kind of economic growth is something of a mystery to me.

So that is the nature of Amendment 21. We also support the other amendments in this group. Amendment 24 in particular requires the Secretary of State to review the impact on

“businesses whose rateable value is close to £500,000”.

That of course brings us to the plateau issue. I will leave the noble Baroness on the Conservative Benches to speak to that, but in the event that she decides to push the amendment to a vote, we on these Benches will support it. I beg to move.

[Lord Jamieson (Con)]

My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 23, in the name of my noble friend Lady Scott, and Amendments 24 and 34 in my name. Amendment 23 seeks to include a review of the impact of this Bill on businesses. The lack of any kind of assessment of the impact that this policy will have on businesses needs to be addressed—hence this amendment.

Amendments 24 and 34 seek to include a requirement for a report on the impact that the £500,000 threshold will have on businesses. I am particularly concerned about the cliff-edge nature of the £500,000 threshold and its impact on business decisions. A business crossing the threshold, even by £1, will see an almost 20% increase in business rates payable. This is bad enough for most businesses, but a business in the retail, hospitality and leisure sector will see a near doubling. For instance, an RHL business with a hereditament of £495,000 that invested in its property just enough to push it over the threshold would potentially see an increase in rates from around £175,000 to £325,000 as a result of the Bill. This is meaningful in terms of business decision-making.

Not only is this unfair but it is a distorting tax. This Government say their priority is growth, but think about all those businesses up and down the country facing this dilemma and the impact on their individual decision-making. I thank the Minister for his engagement on this and I appreciate that this is being driven by the Treasury and its simple spreadsheet analysis. However, these are real decisions with real-world impacts, not simply numbers on a spreadsheet.

This Bill was initially presented as one that would increase the tax share of out-of-town warehouses, dubbed the “Amazon tax”, but that is not the Bill we have been presented with. As the Minister has said previously, only around 10% of businesses paying the higher tax will be warehouses. This Bill will actively encourage businesses to stop investing in their property to avoid paying a hefty increase in business rates. We want to develop our high streets. We want to encourage businesses to invest. This not only disincentivises that critical investment but creates a perverse incentive at the margin.