Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of business premises in (a) Witham constituency, (b) Essex and (c) in England who have had their business rates liabilities increase by (A) up to 10%; (B) between 10% and 20%; (C) between 20% and 30%; (D) between 30% and 40%; (E) between 40% and 50%; (F) between 50% and 60%; (G) between 60% and 70%; (H) between 70% and 80%; (I) between 80% and 90%; (J) between 90% and 100%; (K) between 100% and 125%; (L) between 125% and 150%; (M) between 150% and 175%; (N) between 175% and 200%; (O) over 200%.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to UIN 101363.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the amount of business rates to be paid on hereditaments located in (a) Witham constituency and (b) Essex, in (i) 2025/26 and (ii) 2026/27; and the amount of business rates to be paid by businesses in the retail, leisure, and hospitality sector in (a) Witham constituency and (b) Essex, in (i) 2025/26 and (ii) 2026/27.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
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 as they recover from the pandemic. To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government announced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years, including protection for 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 next year. This means most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
Without this 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%.
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.
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: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the number of additional people in (a) Witham constituency and (b) Essex who will be earning incomes that will be taxed by surpassing (i) the income tax threshold; and (ii) the higher rate of income tax threshold as a consequence of her policy to freeze those thresholds until 2030/31.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMT/HMRC does not publish this information at constituency or local authority level.
By 2025-26 there were an estimated 5.66 million individual income taxpayers in the South East region which includes the Parliamentary Constituency of Witham and the Ceremonial County of Essex.
Regional breakdowns can be found in HMRC’s published Income Tax Liabilities Statistics in Collated Tables, Table 2.2.
Link here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685a6bb541d77db4f68eb0c4/Collated_Income_Tax_liabilities_statistics_tables_-_2.1_to_2.6.ods
This estimate is based on the 2022-23 Survey of Personal Incomes, projected to 2025-26 using economic assumption consistent with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s March 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the total income tax receipts from income taxpayers in (a) Witham constituency and (b) Essex in (i) the current financial year and (ii) each of the next five financial years; and the additional income as a result of her policy to extend the freeze in income tax thresholds to 2030/31.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMT/HMRC does not publish this information at constituency or local authority level.
By 2025-26 there were an estimated 5.66 million individual income taxpayers in the South East region which includes the Parliamentary Constituency of Witham and the Ceremonial County of Essex.
Regional breakdowns can be found in HMRC’s published Income Tax Liabilities Statistics in Collated Tables, Table 2.2.
Link here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685a6bb541d77db4f68eb0c4/Collated_Income_Tax_liabilities_statistics_tables_-_2.1_to_2.6.ods
This estimate is based on the 2022-23 Survey of Personal Incomes, projected to 2025-26 using economic assumption consistent with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s March 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the number of hereditaments in Essex, broken down by local authority area; and how many have had their rateable values (a) increase and (b) decrease as a result of the latest revaluation.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Statistics on changes in the rateable value of non-domestic properties as a result of the 2026 Revaluation and publication of the draft 2026 Rating List are published here: Change in rateable value of rating lists, 2026 RevaluationAsked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made a forecast of the GDP deflator index for each of the next 100 years.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HM Treasury does not prepare forecasts for the UK economy. These forecasts, including assessments of the impact of policy decisions, are the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
To support their five year forecasts for the UK economy and public finances, the OBR produces long-term projections which cover the next 50 years, including for the GDP Deflator. The OBR’s latest long-term projections can be found here: Long-ptterm economic determinants – March 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has (a) received representations and (b) held discussions with the (i) Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, (ii) Ministry of Defence and (iii) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on the costs of the proposed (A) lease with Mauritius, (B) proposed Chagossian Trust Fund, (C) proposed economic partnership with Mauritius and (D) the costs of supporting a future Marine Protected Area established by Mauritius.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The Chancellor has regular discussions with cabinet colleagues on a wide range of issues. The agreement with Mauritius was led by the Foreign Secretary who engaged Cabinet colleagues in the usual way.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many Time To Pay Agreements with (a) individuals and (b) businesses there were in each year since 2020; how many of those agreements have been (i) terminated and (ii) renegotiated since July 2024; and how many complaints about those agreements from (A) individuals and (B) businesses HMRC has received since July 2024.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HMRC publishes data on the number of customers in Time to Pay (TTP) arrangements as part of its quarterly performance updates, which can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates
Over 90% of TTP arrangements are completed successfully. There is a variety of reasons why a TTP arrangement might end before the agreed period; for example, a customer may fail to make their payments on time, the customer may pay the debt in full, or they may ask HMRC to “renegotiate” the TTP to include new liabilities becoming due or to reflect a change in circumstances. HMRC’s systems do not hold data on how many TTPs have specifically been “terminated” or “renegotiated”. “Renegotiated” TTPs are included in the overall published TTP figures.
Extracting the relevant information to confirm how many complaints HMRC has received about “terminated” or “renegotiated” TTPs since July 2024, broken down by individuals and businesses, would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold for Written Parliamentary Questions.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what budget assumptions her Department has provided to the Office for Budget Responsibility on the potential costs to the public purse relating to the proposed treaty with Mauritius on the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
As usual, the OBR will include costs in its forecast once the approach to implementation of government policy is clear. In this case, that will be after any agreement has been scrutinised by Parliament and then ratified. Financial obligations arising from an agreement will be managed responsibly within the government’s fiscal framework by the lead departments, the FCDO and MOD, and no payments will be made until the treaty is legally binding.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) people and (b) businesses have positive tax balances with HMRC due to overpayments of tax broken down by tax type; what the total value of those balances are; and (i) how many accounts and (ii) the total balances in those accounts will be held over into future tax years.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) does not hold readily available summary information on taxpayers with positive tax balances.
Several regimes require taxpayers to make payments on account or settle tax liabilities ahead of filing returns, and subsequent to filing returns, claims for reliefs or notification of a change in circumstances may further impact amounts repayable to taxpayers.
For these reasons the time taken to extract information on positive balances from the various databases and to produce and quality assure the data to answer the questions would be disproportionate on cost grounds.