Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the effect on pubs of a rise in the small business rate relief threshold.
From 1 April 2017 we are permanently doubling the level of small business rate relief. Eligible properties with a rateable value of £12,000 and below will benefit from 100% relief. This means that 600,000 small businesses will pay no business rates at all. Eligible businesses with a property with a rateable value between £12,000 and £15,000 will be subject to tapered relief. From 1 April, around 17,000 pubs may be eligible for small business rate relief, depending on the rateable value of other property used by the business, with around 13,000 potentially eligible for 100% relief, compared to around 4,000 now.