Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of a complete temporary suspension of business rates in order to protect small businesses during the cost of living crisis.

The Final Report of the Business Rates Review was published at Autumn Budget 2021. The report reaffirmed the importance of business rates for raising revenue for essential local services, and announced a package of changes worth almost £7 billion over the next 5 years, including:

• A freeze in the multiplier for 2022-23, a tax cut worth £4.6 billion over the next 5 years;
• A new temporary 50 per cent relief for retail, hospitality and leisure in 2022-23, worth up to £110,000 per business and providing almost £1.7 billion to the sector. Together with Small Business Rates Relief, this means over 90 per cent of retail, hospitality and leisure businesses will receive at least a 50 per cent reduction in their business rates bills in 2022-23;
• Help for businesses to improve their premises and go green through a new exemption for onsite renewable energy generation and storage, which will now take effect from 2022 until 2035.

Announcements on Business Rates for the upcoming financial year will be made in due course.