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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many businesses have received assistance through the small business rate relief scheme.

Approximately 600,000 businesses are benefitting from Small Business Rate Relief with approximately 400,000 paying no rates at all.

Measures in the Localism Act made it easier for small firms to claim the business rate relief to which they are entitled. 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 amongst other things:

· the doubling Small Business Rate Relief for a further year (2015-16);

• increasing the temporary discount for shops, pubs and restaurants with rateable values below £50,000 from £1,000 to £1,500 for 2015-16;

We have also given authorities powers to grant their own local discounts and we now fund 50% of any local discount granted.

We also announced at Autumn Statement that we will review the future structure of business rates. The review will report by Budget 2016.