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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment the Government has made of the effect on regional disparities of the proposed move to 100 per cent business rate retention.

The Government is continuing to work with the sector on the aim to increase retention of locally retained business rates from 50 per cent to 75 per cent from April 2021. The current Local Government Finance system has measures in place to ensure that funds are distributed according to assessed relative needs. Ensuring that the system continues to provide incentives for local growth, while ensuring funding appropriately matches spending needs, is an important objective for the Government.