Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the business rates system on (a) high street hospitality businesses and (b) large online retailers; and whether she plans to reform business rates to support physical businesses such as pubs.

At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic.

In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills.

The Government is also introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties.

We are paying for this through higher rates on the top one per cent of most expensive properties. This includes many large distribution warehouses, such as those used by online giants. The high value multiplier is 33% more than the multiplier for small RHL properties.

From April, every pub and live music venue will get 15% off its new business rates bill on top of the support announced at Budget and then bills will be frozen in real terms for a further two years.

Three-quarters of pubs will see bills flat or falling in April. The new relief is worth £1,650 for the average pub next year. As a sector pubs will pay 8% less in business rates in 2029 than they do right now.

The Government will also launch a review on how pubs are valued for business rates.