Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of public houses that will be affected by the planned changes in business rates from April 2017 in (a) East Lancashire and (b) the UK.

At revaluation, the government adjusts the value of business rates to reflect changes in the property market. An estimated three quarters of businesses will see no change or a fall in their bills from 1 April thanks to the business rates revaluation and reforms to Small Business Rate Relief. 600,000 businesses are set to pay no business rates at all. A £3.6 billion transitional relief scheme will provide support for the minority who do face an increase. It is not possible to estimate these figures for individual councils because it is for local authorities to assess eligibility for Small Business Rate Relief.