Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 23 June 2026, to Question 9591, on Business Rates: Retail Trade, what the evidential basis is for the total business rate bills paid by the retail sector in 2026-27 compared to 2025-26.

The evidential basis is analysis conducted by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) using property-level rateable value data from the Valuation Office, alongside local authority returns, as published in MHCLG’s National Non-Domestic Rates statistics.