Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support high street shops and to prevent further closures following the rise in National Insurance contributions.

We intend to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties, including those on the high street, from 2026-27. Ahead of these changes being made, we have prevented RHL relief from ending in April 2025 by extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business and frozen the small business multiplier.

The government is protecting the smallest businesses from changes to Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) by increasing the Employment Allowance to £10,500. This means that in 2025-26, 865,000 employers (43%) will pay no NICs at all.

Later this year we will publish our Small Business Strategy which will focus on, amongst other issues, what more we can do to support high streets.