Draft Local Government Finance Act 1988 (Non-Domestic Rating Multipliers) (England) Order 2021

Bridget Phillipson Excerpts

Thursday 4th February 2021 General Committees

[Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to see you again in the Chair, Dr Huq.

Throughout the outbreak, we in the Opposition have relentlessly pushed the Government to help businesses through these extraordinarily difficult times. We have made it clear that Ministers must set out what will be available in good time, rather than leaving announcements to the last minute, as has far too often been the case. We therefore will not oppose the Government’s decision today to effectively freeze the multiplier calculating business rates between 2020 and 2021, as this provides support and certainty for businesses during the outbreak.

In fact, this measure being announced and agreed fully two months before it comes into force is, sadly, exceptional for this Government. It compares well with the Prime Minister’s announcement on 31 October last year about furlough being extended, which came just five hours before the time by which the existing scheme was due to end. Even two months, however, is nowhere near being a long-term plan looking six months ahead, for which we have repeatedly been pushing the Government.

I also want to be clear that, while this measure will be welcomed, we believe that the Government should urgently be looking at and setting out how they can use the business rates regime to help businesses struggling through the pandemic. We know that earlier in the crisis, the Government offered relief from rates for businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in England during 2020-21, as the Minister has said. However, the Chancellor’s approach was, not for the first time, based on a one-size-fits-all method of doing things. In contrast, the Welsh Government took a more targeted approach to support those who needed it most, by declining to extend the 100% relief to properties with a rateable value of £500,000 or more.

Fortunately, some of the big supermarkets operating in England have recognised the weaknesses in the Government’s approach and have returned around £2 billion of unneeded business rates relief that they had received from the Treasury. We see this as a welcome opportunity to redeploy that £2 billion to help struggling businesses on the high street, through a hospitality and high streets fightback fund, and also to support those who have been excluded from support right throughout this crisis. Even though we proposed the urgent redeployment of resources towards the end of last year, the Government have still not acted on it or accepted our proposals. I therefore ask the Minister again: does the Treasury agree that the £2 billion returned by supermarkets should be used to support our struggling high streets and to provide additional help to those who, through no fault of their own, have been excluded from Government support right from the beginning of this crisis, almost a year ago?