Business Rates Reform

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Monday 23rd June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. On this Government’s proposals for improving BIDs, the English Devolution White Paper, which I mentioned, set out our intention to strengthen BIDs. We will come forward with further proposals to do so in due course.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, over the years I have run a number of small businesses. In England, any small business with a rateable value of £12,000 or less is entitled to a 100% rebate. Do the Government have any plan to increase that threshold from £12,000?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

We have set out very clearly that we want to go further to modernise the system, over and above the tax cuts that I set out for small properties, exactly for the reasons my noble friend sets out. We have published a discussion paper setting out priority areas for reform that highlights further areas, including how to incentivise investment. Later this summer, we will publish an interim report setting out a clear direction of travel. We will then set out further policy detail in the Budget this autumn.