Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the last Valuation Office Agency business rates revaluation on critical national infrastructure, including airports and power stations.

The last business rates revaluation, which came into effect in England and Wales on 1 April 2023, resulted in a fall in the total rateable values for each of the sectors shown below. Using the examples provided, the figures below demonstrate the overall change in total rateable value (RV) for civil airports and fossil fuel power stations, between the 2017 and 2023 rating lists.

Civil airports.

2017 RV: £392,425,000

2023 RV: £390,997,000

Fossil fuel power stations.

2017 RV: £164,653,000

2023 RV: £138,420,000

For transparency the VOA publishes official statistics for each property class, which show the change in RV. These can be found on the Non-domestic Rating Stock of Properties statistics pages for 2023 and 2024.

The VOA carried out a revaluation of around 2.1 million non-domestic properties in England and Wales to produce the 2023 rating list. The new RVs came into force on 1 April 2023, with the 2023 RV reflecting changes in rental values between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2021.

The government is committed to a fairer business rates system. In our manifesto, we pledged to level the playing field between the high street and online giants, as well as to take steps to incentivise investment, tackle empty properties and support entrepreneurship.