Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending business rates relief for small businesses.

Currently, Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) is available to businesses with a single property below a set rateable value. Eligible properties under £12,000 will receive 100 per cent relief, which means over a third of businesses in England (more than 700,000) pay no business rates at all. There is also tapered support available to properties valued between £12,000 and £15,000, which an additional c.60,000 businesses benefit from.

The Government is committed to retaining SBRR, which is a permanent relief set down in legislation. As highlighted in the Transforming Business Rates Discussion Paper published at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government is interested in hearing stakeholders’ views on the extent to which the current system acts as a barrier to investment and specifically, whether the current eligibility criteria for SBRR impacts businesses' incentives to invest and expand into a second property.