Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an estimate of the potential revenue effect to the public purse of increasing the Small Business Rates Relief threshold from £12,000 to £17,000 in 2026.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) is available to businesses with a single property below a set RV. Eligible property under £12,000 will receive 100 per cent relief, which means around a third of properties in England pay no business rates at all. There is also tapered support available to properties valued between £12,000 and £15,000.The Government is supporting small businesses to grow. At Budget, the Government announced the extension of SBRR so that businesses opening second premises after Budget day can retain their SBRR for three years, tripling the current allowance.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her department plans to review the Small Business Rates Relief threshold in line with inflation.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) is available to businesses with a single property below a set RV. Eligible property under £12,000 will receive 100 per cent relief, which means around a third of properties in England pay no business rates at all. There is also tapered support available to properties valued between £12,000 and £15,000.The Government is supporting small businesses to grow. At Budget, the Government announced the extension of SBRR so that businesses opening second premises after Budget day can retain their SBRR for three years, tripling the current allowance.
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when she last visited (a) Aberdeen and (b) Aberdeenshire; when she last met an oil and gas company in (i) Aberdeen and (ii) Aberdeenshire in relation to their oil and gas activities; and which businesses were met.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor engages with different stakeholders on a range of policy issues. Her last trip to Aberdeen was in August 2025 where she visited the St Fergus gas plant near Peterhead. Additionally, in March 2025, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury hosted a roundtable in Aberdeen with stakeholders from the oil and gas sector.
Details of Ministerial meetings with external stakeholders are published regularly online. The most recent publication can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/csv-preview/68d50fe09ce370a7e0a0fca0/HMT_ministerial_meeting_Apr_to_Jun_25.csv
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when she last (a) visited (i) Aberdeen and (ii) Aberdeenshire and (b) met an oil and gas company in (A) Aberdeen and (B) Aberdeenshire in relation to oil and gas activities.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor engages with different stakeholders on a range of policy issues. Her last trip to Aberdeen was in August 2025 where she visited the St Fergus gas plant near Peterhead. Additionally, in March 2025, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury hosted a roundtable in Aberdeen with stakeholders from the oil and gas sector.
Details of Ministerial meetings with external stakeholders are published regularly online. The most recent publication can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/csv-preview/68d50fe09ce370a7e0a0fca0/HMT_ministerial_meeting_Apr_to_Jun_25.csv
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will publish a breakdown of a) the number of claims and b) the total value of statutory paternity pay and shared parental pay between the public and private sectors for each of the last three years.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC collects data on statutory paternity and shared parental pay. HMRC also holds data on the legal status of organisations and their Pay As You Earn schemes, which does include whether the organisation is a private sector or public sector organisation.
However, to match the two together would be a significant analytical task and so the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the new Electric Vehicle Excise Duty mileage charge from April 2028 on Electric Vehicle uptake.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government intends to create a fair motoring tax system while supporting the automotive industry and ensuring EVs remain an attractive choice for consumers.
As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028, a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, recognising that EVs contribute to congestion and wear and tear on the roads but pay no equivalent to fuel duty.
While it is fair for EV drivers to contribute for their car usage, the government is also committed to ensuring that driving an electric vehicle is an attractive choice for consumers. Therefore, the rate of eVED paid by electric vehicle drivers will be half the fuel duty rate paid by the average petrol/diesel driver, ensuring that it will still be cheaper to own and run an EV for the majority of EV drivers.
The Government is also providing generous additional support to incentivise the use of electric vehicles, including £1.3 billion of additional funding for the Electric Car Grant (ECG), £200 million for chargepoint rollout, and increasing the Expensive Car Supplement (ECS) threshold to £50,000 for EVs. This support will be introduced before the tax takes effect to support continued momentum in EV take-up.
The Government has set out the expected impacts from eVED and other Budget measures in the Budget 2025 Policy Costings document at GOV.UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the difference in annual net income during 2027 for people whose total gross income is £13,000 composed of (a) only the new State Pension, and (b) a basic State Pension plus a personal pension.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As the Chancellor has said, over this Parliament those whose only income is the basic or new State Pension without any increments will not have to pay income tax.
As announced at the Budget, the government will ease the administrative burden for pensioners whose sole income is the basic or new State Pension without any increments so that they do not have to pay small amounts of tax via Simple Assessment from 2027-28.
The government will set out more detail next year.
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to Budget 2025, what estimate she has made of the potential impact of the pay per mile charge for electric vehicles on the number of sales of new (a) battery electric cars and (b) plug-in hybrid cars in each of the next five years.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government intends to create a fair motoring tax system while supporting the automotive industry and ensuring EVs remain an attractive choice for consumers.
As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028, a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, recognising that EVs contribute to congestion and wear and tear on the roads but pay no equivalent to fuel duty.
While it is fair for EV drivers to contribute for their car usage, the government is also committed to ensuring that driving an electric vehicle is an attractive choice for consumers. Therefore, the rate of eVED paid by electric vehicle drivers will be half the fuel duty rate paid by the average petrol/diesel driver, ensuring that it will still be cheaper to own and run an EV for the majority of EV drivers.
The Government is also providing generous additional support to incentivise the use of electric vehicles, including £1.3 billion of additional funding for the Electric Car Grant (ECG), £200 million for chargepoint rollout, and increasing the Expensive Car Supplement (ECS) threshold to £50,000 for EVs. This support will be introduced before the tax takes effect to support continued momentum in EV take-up.
The Government has set out the expected impacts from eVED and other Budget measures in the Budget 2025 Policy Costings document at GOV.UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the pay per mile charge for electric vehicles on sales of new i) battery electric cars and ii) plug-in hybrid cars.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government intends to create a fair motoring tax system while supporting the automotive industry and ensuring EVs remain an attractive choice for consumers.
As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028, a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, recognising that EVs contribute to congestion and wear and tear on the roads but pay no equivalent to fuel duty.
While it is fair for EV drivers to contribute for their car usage, the government is also committed to ensuring that driving an electric vehicle is an attractive choice for consumers. Therefore, the rate of eVED paid by electric vehicle drivers will be half the fuel duty rate paid by the average petrol/diesel driver, ensuring that it will still be cheaper to own and run an EV for the majority of EV drivers.
The Government is also providing generous additional support to incentivise the use of electric vehicles, including £1.3 billion of additional funding for the Electric Car Grant (ECG), £200 million for chargepoint rollout, and increasing the Expensive Car Supplement (ECS) threshold to £50,000 for EVs. This support will be introduced before the tax takes effect to support continued momentum in EV take-up.
The Government has set out the expected impacts from eVED and other Budget measures in the Budget 2025 Policy Costings document at GOV.UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, further to the HMT guidance entitled High Value Council Tax Surcharge published on 26 November 2025, for what reason social housing is exempt from the new council tax surcharge.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The High Value Council Tax Surcharge (HVCTS) applies to the highest-value properties to make taxation fairer. It affects less than 1% of homes in England and ensures those with the broadest shoulders contribute their fair share towards funding local government services. The tax will only be paid by owners of homes worth over £2m.
Social housing is provided to support low-income and vulnerable groups, and therefore social landlords will be exempt.