Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has conducted an impact assessment of the effect on high streets of changes to business rates.

Valuations for the purposes of rating are carried out independently by the Valuation Office Agency. The majority of ratepayers have seen no change or a fall in their bills. However, for those facing increases as a result of the 2017 revaluation we have provided a £3.6 billion transitional relief scheme.

At the 2016 Budget, the Chancellor announced the biggest ever cut in business rates – worth nearly £9 billion across the next five years, taking 600,000 small businesses out of paying rates. In the Spring 2017 Budget, we announced £435 million support to businesses seeing increases in rates bills. In the Autumn 2017 Budget, the Chancellor announced that he will bring forward the switch of the annual indexation of business rates from RPI to the CPI by two years, which is worth £4.1 billion by 2023.

The Government is committed to supporting small and medium size businesses on our high streets. Since 2010, we have given over £18 million to struggling town centres through the High Streets Innovation Fund and launched successful initiatives such as “Love Your Local Market”.