Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress she has made on reforming the business rates system.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to creating a fairer business rates system that supports small businesses and protects the high street.
To deliver our manifesto pledge, we intend to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties, with rateable values below £500,000, from 2026-27, which will provide permanent support to the sector.
When the new multipliers are set at Budget 2025, HM Treasury intends to publish overall analysis of the effects of the new multiplier arrangements.
Ahead of these changes being made, the Government recognises that businesses will need support in 2025-26. As such, we have prevented the current RHL relief from ending in April 2025, extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business, and we have frozen the small business multiplier.
Currently, Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) is available to businesses with a single property below a set rateable value. Eligible properties under £12,000 will receive 100 per cent relief, which means over a third of businesses in England (more than 700,000) pay no business rates at all. There is also tapered support available to properties valued between £12,000 and £15,000, which an additional c.60,000 businesses benefit from.
At Autumn Budget 2024 the Government published a Discussion Paper setting out priority areas for reform, including SBRR.
The Government is committed to retaining SBRR, which is a permanent relief set down in legislation. As highlighted in the Discussion Paper, the Government is interested in hearing stakeholders’ views on the extent to which the current system acts as a barrier to investment and specifically, whether the current eligibility criteria for SBRR impacts businesses' incentives to invest and expand into a second property.
The Government has engaged extensively with stakeholders, both face-to-face at roundtables and through written representations.
In summer, the Government will publish an interim report that sets out a clear direction of travel for the business rates system, with further policy detail to follow at Budget 2025.
HM Treasury releases a quarterly record of Minister’s meetings with external individuals and organisations. This can be found online: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel