Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to review the impact of business rates on the viability of the UK retail sector.
The Government is committed to conducting a fundamental review of business rates and will announce details in due course. The Government will also increase the business rates retail discount from one-third to 50% in 2020/21 and extend eligibility to independent cinemas and grassroots music venues for the first time.
This is on top of repeated action taken by the Government to reduce the burden of rates by £13bn over the next five years. This includes doubling the threshold for Small Business Rate Relief, meaning 675,000 of the smallest businesses pay no business rates at all, and switching from RPI to the lower rate of CPI indexation which is worth over £6bn in savings to businesses.