Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether hotels that have an agreement with the Home Office to provide accommodation to asylum seekers are (a) exempt from business rates and (b) entitled to special VAT status.

Hotels are eligible for the 75 per cent business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure properties (RHL), up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business for 2023-24. This is a tax cut worth over £2 billion for around 230,000 RHL businesses, to support the high street and protect small shops.

This is part of a package of tax cuts worth £13.6 billion over the next five years, including a freeze in the multiplier, an exchequer funded transitional relief scheme, and targeted support for small businesses.

Hotels that have an agreement with the Home Office to provide accommodation to asylum seekers do not have any special VAT status and normal rules apply.