Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support small and medium sized high street businesses with (a) rising rents, (b) business rates and (c) rises in employer National Insurance contributions in Sutton and Cheam constituency.

The Government is fully committed to rejuvenating our high streets. We want to support the businesses and communities that make our town centres successful. To deliver our manifesto pledge on business rates, we intend to introduce permanently tax rates for high street retail, hospitality, and leisure properties, with rateable values below £500,000, from 2026-27. Ahead of these changes being made, we have extended the retail, hospitality and leisure rate relief for one year, at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business, and frozen the small business multiplier.

The Government has protected the smallest businesses and charities from the impact of the increase to Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all next year, more than half of employers will see no change or will gain overall from this package, and all eligible employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no employer NICs.