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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to reduce business rates.

We announced at the 2014 Autumn Statement an extra £650 million of support for 2015-16 business rates bills in England, bringing the total support from 2013 and 2014 Autumn Statement measures to £1.4 billion in 2015-16. That includes:

• doubling Small Business Rate Relief for a further year;
• a 2% cap on the inflation increase for 2015-16 (for the second year);
• increasing the temporary discount for shops, pubs and restaurants with rateable values below £50,000 from £1,000 to £1,500 for 2015-16;
• extending the existing transitional relief scheme for two years for properties with a rateable value up to and including £50,000; and
• limiting backdating of bills arising from changes to the rateable values list.

We are also conducting a review of business rates which will conclude by the end of this year.