Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing Business Rates relief to nurseries.

The early years system has a central role to play in driving economic growth and breaking down barriers to opportunity, which is why the Government wants to make childcare more affordable and accessible.

At the Budget in October, the Government committed to increasing spending on early years and family services to over £8 billion in 2025-26. This includes an additional £1.8 billion which will be paid to early years providers to continue the expansion of government-funded childcare and help more parents, particularly women, stay in and return to work.

Business rates are a broad-based tax on the value of non-domestic properties including nurseries. To protect small businesses, the government announced at the Autumn Budget that it would freeze the small business multiplier for 2025-26. Taken together with Small Business Rates Relief, this intervention ensures that over a million properties will be protected from inflationary increases.

In addition to this support, standalone nurseries are also eligible for charitable rate relief where they have a ‘charitable purpose’.