Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they plan to introduce to support businesses in the light of business rates increases.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

At the Budget, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since Covid, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties.

To support with bill increases, at the Budget in November 2025, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, including to protect ratepayers seeing their bills increase. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down next year. This also means most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.

More broadly, the Government is delivering a long overdue reform to rebalance the business rates system and support the high street, as promised in our manifesto. The Government is doing this by introducing permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties, while ensuring that warehouses used by online giants will pay more.

The new RHL tax rates replace the temporary RHL relief that has been winding down since COVID. Unlike RHL relief, the new rates are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there will be no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England will benefit.

Found: This was in response to the annual commissioning letter from the then Home Office Minister, Lord Sharpe of Epsom