Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish the review of the impact of increased rateable values on hotels.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has heard concerns from hotels about how they are valued for business rates and has committed to reviewing this. The review will report in time for any decisions that follow to be implemented for the 2029 revaluation.
The Government will set out more detail of the review in due course. Hotels will continue to benefit from the £4.3 billion support package announced at the Budget, including the transitional relief scheme which will cap bill increases.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they plan to introduce to support businesses in the light of business rates increases.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
At the Budget, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since Covid, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties.
To support with bill increases, at the Budget in November 2025, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, including to protect ratepayers seeing their bills increase. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down next year. This also means most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
More broadly, the Government is delivering a long overdue reform to rebalance the business rates system and support the high street, as promised in our manifesto. The Government is doing this by introducing permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties, while ensuring that warehouses used by online giants will pay more.
The new RHL tax rates replace the temporary RHL relief that has been winding down since COVID. Unlike RHL relief, the new rates are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there will be no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England will benefit.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they consulted representatives of the hospitality and pub sectors before finalising the changes to business-rates multipliers and reliefs contained in the 2025 Budget; and what plans they have to engage with industry bodies on this subject.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government carried out engagement with a range of stakeholders on business rates ahead of the budget and continues to do so.
The amount of business rates paid on each property is based on the rateable value of the property, assessed by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), and the multiplier values, which are set by the Government. Rateable values are re-assessed every three years. Revaluations ensure that the rateable values of properties (i.e. the tax base) remain in line with market changes, and that the tax rates adjust to reflect changes in the tax base.
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since Covid, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties. To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years to protect ratepayers seeing their bills increase because of the revaluation. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down. This support also means that most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
More broadly, the Government is delivering a long overdue reform to rebalance the business rates system and support the high street, as promised in our manifesto. The Government is doing this by introducing permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £900 million per year, and will benefit over 750,000 properties.
The new RHL tax rates replace the temporary RHL relief that has been winding down since Covid. Unlike RHL relief, the new rates are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there will be no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England will benefit.
Without Government support, pubs would have faced a 45% increase in the total bills they pay next year. However, because of the support the Government has put in place, this has fallen to just 4%.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of analysis conducted by UKHospitality indicating that, over the next three years, the average pub will pay an additional £12,900 in business rates.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government carried out engagement with a range of stakeholders on business rates ahead of the budget and continues to do so.
The amount of business rates paid on each property is based on the rateable value of the property, assessed by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), and the multiplier values, which are set by the Government. Rateable values are re-assessed every three years. Revaluations ensure that the rateable values of properties (i.e. the tax base) remain in line with market changes, and that the tax rates adjust to reflect changes in the tax base.
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since Covid, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties. To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years to protect ratepayers seeing their bills increase because of the revaluation. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down. This support also means that most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
More broadly, the Government is delivering a long overdue reform to rebalance the business rates system and support the high street, as promised in our manifesto. The Government is doing this by introducing permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £900 million per year, and will benefit over 750,000 properties.
The new RHL tax rates replace the temporary RHL relief that has been winding down since Covid. Unlike RHL relief, the new rates are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there will be no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England will benefit.
Without Government support, pubs would have faced a 45% increase in the total bills they pay next year. However, because of the support the Government has put in place, this has fallen to just 4%.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the correlation between employment levels and economic activity over the past year.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Employment measures the number of people in paid work or who had a job that they were temporarily away from. GDP is a measure of economic activity and measures the size and growth of the economy over a given period.
Real GDP (GDP adjusted for inflation) has grown by 1.3% across the past year (Q3 2024 - Q3 2025). In Q3 2025 the 16+ employment level rose from 33.8 million in Q3 2024 to 34.2 million in Q3 2025, based on data from the Labour Force Survey.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) continue to advise caution when interpreting changes in the Labour Force Survey over the past two years due to the effects of methodological changes.