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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 15001 on Local Government Finance and with reference to the Provisional local government finance settlement: England, 2025 to 2026, published on 18 December 2024, what estimate her Department has made of the (a) value of locally retained business rates in 2025-26 and (b) the proportion of core spending power comprised by those rates.

Local authorities have not yet submitted their estimates of business rates income for 2025-26. The Department will publish local authority estimates of locally retained business rates for 2025-26 on 19th February.

Core Spending Power, published alongside the settlement, includes Settlement Funding Assessment which is comprised of Revenue Support Grant and a component linked to business rates - Baseline Funding Levels. Baseline Funding Levels represent an authority’s need that is funded via business rates and will increase to £16.1 billion for 2025-26. In addition, Core Spending Power includes an adjustment for compensation for under-indexing the business rates multipliers of £2.7 billion. In total, business rates elements make up £18.8 billion, or 27% of core spending power.