Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the number of businesses that will no longer be eligible for Small Business Rate Relief as a result of inflationary and revaluation-driven increases in rateable values at the 2026 revaluation.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) is available to businesses with a single property with a rateable value (RV) below the threshold of £15,000. If a business expands to a second property, it retains SBRR on the first property for 12 months. Following that, the business is not eligible for SBRR unless additional properties have an RV below £2,899 and their total property portfolio has an RV below £20,000 (£28,000 in London).
Currently, over a third of properties (more than 700,000) pay no business rates as they receive 100 per cent SBRR, with an additional c.60,000 benefiting from reduced bills as this relief tapers.
Every three years, all commercial properties are revalued by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). The 2026 revaluation, which will take effect from April 2026, will update RVs and may, therefore, affect businesses’ eligibility for SBRR. The revaluation process is ongoing and the VOA are required to publish a draft of all properties’ new RVs this year.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to continue the 40 percent relief on business rates for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure businesses into the 2026-27 financial year.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) relief has been extended year-by-year by previous governments since the pandemic. It has been a stopgap measure, and we recognise that businesses need longer term certainty on their business rates liabilities.
Without any Government intervention, RHL relief would have ended entirely in April 2025, creating a cliff-edge for businesses. Instead, the Government is providing a 40 per cent discount to RHL properties up to a cash cap of £110,0000 per business in 2025-26, ahead of introducing permanently lower rates for RHL properties with rateable values below £500,000 from April 2026.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 57631 on Horizon IT System: Compensation, whether the Government has formally invited Fujitsu to re-bid for the Trader Support Service.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
All of our contract opportunities are publicly available through Contracts Finder and/or Find-a-Tender Service and are available to any economic operator that is able to meet the requirements of the procurement in compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 or The Procurement Regulations 2024, as applicable.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Trader Support Service being delivered by a contractor involved in the Horizon scandal on UK trade operations.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Trader Support Services contract was procured in compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Existing service delivery is managed robustly by contract management teams in compliance with this legislation and to ensure that the requirements of UK traders are met under the Windsor Framework.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of awarding the Trader Support Service contract to Fujitsu on the reputation of that service.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
We follow government procurement rules. All of our contract opportunities are publicly available through Contracts Finder and/or Find-a-Tender Service and are available to any economic operator that is able to meet the requirements of the procurement in compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 or The Procurement Regulations 2024, as applicable. Under the applicable legislation, there are no legal grounds that prevent Fujitsu from expressing its interest in this procurement. It is not appropriate to comment on any potential outcomes of a live public procurement.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what is the estimated carbon footprint of her recent visit to Washington DC.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Due to the recent nature of the trip it is not currently possible to estimate the carbon footprint of this visit.
Further details for the trip will be published as part of the quarterly Ministers overseas travel at the following link.
HMT ministers' meetings, hospitality, gifts and overseas travel - GOV.UK
The final CO2e will be included within in the Sustainability Report section of HM Treasury 2024-25 Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether gifts of clothing are a taxable benefit in kind.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The normal rules for employment-related benefits apply to employment-related gifts, as described in HMRC guidance at https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim20020