Business Rates Reform

Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town Excerpts

Monday 23rd June 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of business rates reform on business improvement districts.

[Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town (Lab)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and I refer the House to my registered interests, including that I run two business improvement districts.

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Livermore) (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government are creating a fairer business rates system that protects high streets and supports investment. We do not anticipate that these business rates reforms will have any direct impact on business improvement districts.

[Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend the Minister for that reply. Business improvement districts—BIDs—are vital to local economies and high street regeneration, and rely heavily on the business rates system. Will my noble friend commit to consulting them directly through bodies such as Association of Town & City Management before making any future reforms? As government services move more fully online, will he back online voting for bid ballots in order to keep the process accessible, efficient and fit for the digital age?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for his question and pay tribute to his work and his expertise in this area. As he knows, business improvement districts play an important role in improving the local trading environment in our high streets and town centres, investing over £154 million each year in their local areas.

On the consultation on future reforms, my honourable friend the Exchequer Secretary, together with Treasury officials, has engaged extensively with stakeholders to codesign a fairer, more modern business rates system. I know that the Association of Town & City Management, which my noble friend mentioned, has been an important part of that. Later this summer, we will publish an interim report that sets out a clear direction of travel, with further policy detail to follow in the Budget.

As for online voting, in the English Devolution White Paper, the Government recognised the importance of ensuring high levels of turnout. My colleagues at MHCLG will come back with further proposals in due course.

Spring Statement

Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town Excerpts

Thursday 27th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

The noble Lord’s question is about the impact assessment, and I am answering that. The impact assessment takes no account of the extra £1 billion being invested. The OBR will look at that £1 billion over the summer and will come back with an updated impact assessment at that point.

[Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town (Lab)]

My Lords, the UK continues to lag behind many EU countries in overall productivity—something that cannot be explained solely by differences in how the French choose to measure theirs. Could the Minister outline which specific measures in yesterday’s Statement are designed to boost productivity both within the Civil Service and across the wider economy?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for highlighting a very important point. The Governor of the Bank of England, in his speech last week, highlighted the link between productivity growth and living standards, so we know how important it is to increase productivity. Public sector productivity is one of the few issues that the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, and I agree on: I know that she, too, is focused on increasing public sector productivity. The difficulty is that the previous Government spoke about it but never took any measures to do anything about it. Yesterday, the Chancellor announced a £3.25 billion transformation fund to increase the productivity in our public sector, so that we can spend more money on the front line and get money in public services where it is needed. In terms of the private sector, in answer to my noble friend’s question, the thing I would point to most in yesterday’s Statement, is the importance of capital spending. We know that continual cuts to capital spending, under the previous Government, seriously restricted our productivity growth. The IMF consistently said to us that lack of public sector investment was a serious barrier to growth in our economy, because it is a serious barrier to productivity. Protecting, yesterday, £100 billion of capital spending, that we put in the Budget, is a central point for getting productivity up in our economy. The other thing I would point to is skills investment; we know that we need the higher-skilled workforce in order to do the construction work we are setting out.