Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to support the hospitality sector in South Shropshire constituency.

The Government is committed to supporting the hospitality sector and we recognise the significant contribution they have on the UK economy.  
  
Delivering on our manifesto pledge, we will introduce permanently lower tax rates for high street retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties, with rateable values below £500,000, from 2026-27. In the meantime, 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.  
  
The Chancellor also announced a duty cut on qualifying draught products – approximately 60% of the alcoholic drinks sold in pubs. This represents an overall reduction in duty bills of over £85m a year. This reduction increased the relief available on draught products to 13.9%.  
 
 The Government has protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, which means that 865,000 employers will pay no employer NICs at all next year.  More than half of employers will see no change or will gain overall from this package and eligible employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no employer NICs.

The Government has funded a wide range of community assets, including pubs, through the Community Ownership Fund. On 23 December 2024, this Government announced the outcome of Round 4 of the Community Ownership Fund, the largest ever round to date, where we awarded £36.2m to 85 projects across the UK, including projects in Shropshire.