Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to encourage retail businesses to return to the high street through changes to business rates.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is creating a fairer business rates system that protects the high street, supports investment, and is fit for the 21st century.
As set out at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government will introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with ratable values (RVs) below £500,000 from 2026/27. This permanent tax cut will ensure they benefit from much-needed certainty and support. The Government is sustainably funding this by introducing a higher tax rate on properties with RVs of £500,000 and above.
The final design, including the rates, for the new business rates multipliers will be announced at Budget 2025, so that the Government can factor the revaluation outcomes and broader economic and fiscal context into decision-making.
Ahead of the new multipliers being introduced, the Government prevented RHL business rates relief from ending in April 2025, extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business.
The Government will also support those seeing the biggest increases at the revaluation. The Government will announce details at Budget 2025, in light of the revaluation outcomes.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that the Financial Conduct Authority responds in full to complainants against companies it has given permits to operate.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The FCA does not generally have a role in relation to managing or intervening with individual complaints between the firms it regulates and their customers.
Under the independent Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) Dispute Resolution Rules, firms that are regulated by the FCA are required to operate complaints handling procedures to deal with complaints promptly and fairly.
Where complaints are not resolved through a firm’s own complaints procedures, the customer can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS is an independent body established by Parliament to provide consumers with a cost-free and quick route to resolve disputes with financial services firms. Firms are required under the FCA’s rules to co-operate with the FOS and comply promptly with any decision that the FOS may make.
The FCA is directly involved in some types of complaint, for example where a person has information about potential wrongdoing or misconduct, or an individual wants to raise a whistleblowing concern. People who are worried they have been the victim of relevant scams can also make a report to the FCA. While the FCA cannot resolve individual disputes, it can take information provided into account as part of its ongoing supervision of a firm and wider monitoring of practices in the sector. The FCA is required not to disclose confidential information it receives in the course of carrying on its functions, and will not normally be able to discuss this with the person making the complaint due to statutory restrictions on disclosing certain information.
Anyone directly affected by the way in which the FCA has exercised, or failed to exercise, its functions (other than its legislative functions) under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 may also complain about the FCA using the Financial Regulators Complaints Scheme. This would include, for example, complaints about the FCA’s actions supervising a relevant firm. The FCA website gives details of how to make a complaint about the regulators at https://www.fca.org.uk/about/complain-about-regulators
The FCA is fully accountable to Parliament for how it discharges its statutory functions, and there are a range of mechanisms in place to provide accountability and oversight. Treasury Ministers and officials meet regularly with the FCA to discuss a wide range of issues, including its overall performance in furthering its statutory objectives.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the potential of the Sterling 20 investment initiative to support infrastructure and high-growth sectors, and what role will the Treasury play in overseeing its deployment.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Sterling 20 is a new grouping of institutional investors announced by the Chancellor at the inaugural Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham. Members of the group include signatories of July’s Mansion House Accord, as well as two insurers and the Pension Protection Fund. There will also be attendance from the Local Government Pension Scheme pools where appropriate.
The Mansion House Accord saw pension providers representing 90% of active defined contribution scheme savers commit to invest at least 5% of their main default funds in UK private markets by 2030. This commitment will unlock over £25 billion for the UK with investment including new housing, infrastructure and high-growth industries. Establishing the Sterling 20 also delivers on a specific government pledge to “curate a pipeline” of investment opportunities.
The grouping will further support mobilising institutional investment by raising awareness among investors of government-led programmes and initiatives. This will allow members to help shape and co-design investment opportunities, so they are attractive and relevant to their regulatory and fiduciary requirements. By promoting knowledge sharing, the Sterling 20 can help remove investment blockers and improve the investability of government-led projects.
The forum is industry-led and delivered in partnership with the City of London Corporation as well as the relevant leading trade associations. The Office for Investment act as the secretariat and are responsible for curating the programme for the group. His Majesty’s Treasury will take an oversight role through the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Minister for Investment, as well as cross-government investment governance structures, to hold the Office for Investment and contributing departments to account on delivery and ensure the success of the initiative.
More broadly, delivering the 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy’s ambitious programme for transforming the UK’s infrastructure will require significant increases in private investment to complement and maximise the value of the extensive public investment underway. The government will continue to work in partnership with the private sector to unlock capital for UK infrastructure, including through the Sterling 20.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she had with the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) on the risk that OBR productivity growth forecasts would be revised down before the (a) Autumn Budget 2024 and (b) Spring Statement 2025.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor engages regularly with the OBR including in preparation for fiscal events. As the Government’s independent official forecaster, the OBR has full discretion over the judgements underpinning its forecasts.
In the OBR's March Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the OBR included two scenarios for trend productivity, reflecting both upside and downside risks.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Independent - Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the value of uncollected tax in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) estimates the size of the tax gap, which is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid. The tax gap statistics and details of the estimate methodologies are published annually and are available at: Measuring tax gaps 2025 edition: tax gap estimates for 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK.
Table 1.3 of the online tables shows the tax gap time series between tax years 2005 to 2006 and 2023 to 2024 in percentage and absolute value terms. In the tax year 2023 to 2024, the tax gap was 5.3% of total theoretical tax liabilities, or £46.8 billion in absolute terms. The tax gap was 5.6% (£46.4 billion) in 2022 to 2023, 5.6% (£41.8 billion) in 2021 to 2022, 5.3% (£34.2 billion) in 2020 to 2021, and 5.8% (£38.5 billion) in 2019 to 2020. The online tables are available at: Measuring tax gaps tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 16 September 2025 to Question 77468 on Contactless Payments, if she will have discussions with the FCA on extending the closing deadline for responses to the consultation on unlimited contactless card payments.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
On September 10, the FCA launched a consultation on its proposals to introduce a new risk-based approach to contactless payments, allowing payment service providers greater flexibility to determine their approach to contactless payments where they identify there is a low risk of fraud. This consultation closed on 15 October. Decisions on the consultation process on changes to the contactless limits are a matter for the FCA, which is independent of the Government.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Office for National Statistics has provided (a) data, (b) technical support and (c) modelling assistance her Department in connection with analyses of (i) tax contributions and (ii) benefit claims by (A) ethnicity, (B) nationality, and (C) country of birth.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces the Living Costs and Food survey which is one of the household microdata sets used regularly for analysis of tax and welfare measures by protected characteristics to fulfil the requirements under the Public Sector Equality Duty in the Equality Act 2010. The ONS has not provided any technical support or modelling assistance.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has had recent discussions with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on granting a licence to allow (a) renovations and (b) other maintenance works to proceed at Sutton Place in Woking.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the hon member to the answers that I gave to Parliamentary Question UIN 80792 and Parliamentary Question UIN 84508 on 20 October and 28 October respectively.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the (a) removal of the VAT exemption and (b) increase in (i) business rates, (ii) the minimum wage and (iii) National Insurance contributions on specialist (A) music and (B) dance schools.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the value that music and dance schools bring to education in the UK.
In advance of Autumn Budget 2024, the Government conducted thorough and detailed analysis of the impacts of applying VAT to private school fees and the removal of business rates charitable rate relief from private schools in England, including on Music and Dance schools.
The Department for Education provides means-tested bursaries for eligible families as part of the Music and Dance Scheme (MDS) if their child has a place at any one of eight MDS performing arts private schools. The Department adjusted MDS bursary contribution for families with a relevant income below £45,000 to account for VAT on fees, ensuring that the total parental fee contributions for families with below average relevant incomes remain unchanged for the 2024/25 academic year.
The Employment Allowance has been more than doubled to £10,500, ensuring that over half of businesses with National Insurance liabilities, including those providing specialist education in music and dance, will either gain or see no change this year.
A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.
The National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates are recommended by the independent and expert Low Pay Commission (LPC). By seeking advice from the LPC when setting the minimum wage rates, the Government is able to ensure that the right balance is struck between the needs of workers, affordability for employers, including those in the education sector, and the impact on the economy. DBT have published their full Impact Assessment alongside the legislation here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2025/9780348268492/impacts
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what (a) guidance, (b) funding, (c) accounting assistance and (d) other support her Department is providing to small businesses that become VAT-registered.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC provides extensive guidance on GOV.UK to support VAT registered businesses including essentials that every business needs, up to more complex areas. Additional individual support is available from their helplines. HMRC has published an online VAT Registration Estimator for businesses approaching VAT registration. This helps them understand their basic obligations, work out what their liability may be should they need to register, and provides links to relevant guidance.
There are schemes available to small businesses to support their cash flow and simplify the requirements for accounting for VAT. This includes the annual accounting scheme and cash accounting scheme, available for businesses with a turnover up to £1.6m. The Flat Rate Scheme is also available for those with a turnover up to £230k. This simplifies the calculation of VAT liability by applying a sector-specific percentage to sales, rather than recording VAT on each transaction.