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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the risk of independent bookshops closing as a result of an increase in the rateable value of their property following re-assessment by the Valuation Office Agency.

Business rates are based on valuations from the Valuation Office Agency and we do not intervene in their independent assessments. Nearly three quarters of businesses will see no change or a fall in their bills from 1 April thanks to the business rates revaluation with 600,000 businesses set to pay no business rates at all. We have put in place a £3.6 billion transitional relief scheme for England to support ratepayers at the 2017 revaluation.