Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the four-year £435 million package of support for business ratepayers following the 2017 business rate revaluation has been spent; and how much has been used to support bookshops.

Billing authorities are responsible for rebilling eligible businesses due to receive support as part of the £435 million package of funding announced by the Chancellor at the Budget. The Department for Communities and Local Government will be collecting data on the amount spent by billing authorities during the financial year 2017/18 at the end of that period as part of the normal process of reconciling local authority relief payments. On 13 October, the Government published a list of authorities that indicated that they had begun to rebill businesses on each of the three schemes. This list will be updated (attached)regularly, at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-rates-relief-schemes-2017-rebilling-progress