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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what research his Department has commissioned on the (a) age profile of rural counties and (b) ability of older residents to generate business rates.

The Office for National Statistics publish population estimates and population projections at the local authority level, broken down by age. We are not aware of any evidence to suggest a correlation between levels of business rates income and the age profile of residents.