Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to extend recent business rates support for pubs to other types of hospitality venues.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government has announced a £4.3 billion business rates support package to protect ratepayers across all sectors seeing large bill increases. This includes an expanded supporting small business scheme to support ratepayers losing retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) relief in April 2026.

In addition, the Government is introducing permanently lower tax multipliers for eligible RHL properties. These are worth almost £1 billion per year, and will benefit over 750,000 properties.

On top of this, pubs and live music venues will also benefit from 15% off their new business rates bills, ahead of their bills being frozen in real terms for a further two years.

As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases next year, including 23% seeing their bills go down. Government support also means that most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest properties.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the annual cost to (1) the hospitality sector, and (2) the retail sector, of the changes to employers' national insurance contributions made at the 2024 Budget.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer National Insurance contributions (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 TIIN is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-secondary-threshold-the-secondary-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-rate-and-the-empl

The Government decided to protect the smallest businesses from the changes to employer NICs by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this tax year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the merits of proposals to cut VAT for hospitality businesses to 10 per cent.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government recognises the significant contribution made by hospitality businesses to economic growth and social life in the UK.

VAT is the UK’s third largest tax, forecast to raise £180 billion in 2025/26. Tax breaks reduce the revenue available for vital public services and must represent value for money for the taxpayer.

HMRC estimates that the cost of reducing the 20 per cent Standard Rate of VAT on all accommodation and food and beverage services to 10 per cent would be in 2026-27 £10.5 billion.

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