Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the impact of the level of business rates on businesses over the last five years.

Business rates are devolved. In England, local authorities reported that the gross non-domestic rates income for 2023-24 was £33 billion.

At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced that it intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for RHL properties in England, with Rateable Values below £500,000 , from 2026-27. Ahead of these changes being made, we have prevented RHL relief from ending in April 2025 by extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business and frozen the small business multiplier.

These announcements reflect the Government’s first steps to support the high street. We want to go further to modernise the system, and so, we have published a Discussion Paper setting out priority areas for reform. This paper invites industry to help co-design a fairer business rates system over the course of this Parliament.