Business Rates

Debate between Dan Tomlinson and Lisa Smart

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Tomlinson]

I thank my hon. Friend for his persistent and powerful engagement on these matters. He is an expert on all things high street and business rates, as I have come to know. Let me point him to the transforming business rates work that the Government have been publishing and advancing. One possibility that we are considering carefully and talking to businesses about is changing the business rates system from a slab system to a slice system. At present, if a business goes over an individual threshold, the new tax rate will then apply to the whole value of its property. Reform is always tricky, but we want to investigate whether changing to a slice system, whereby the tax rate would not involve those big stepped increases, would support investment by businesses on high streets in Rossendale and Darwen and across the country.

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

William Robinson is the managing director of Robinsons Brewery, on my patch. His is the sixth generation running a brewer, a bottler and more than 250 pubs, inns and hotels across the north-west and north Wales, as well as an important bottling plant in Bredbury. William has written to tell me that the present system is destroying confidence, businesses and future investment, and therefore jobs. Does the Minister accept that repeated changes such as moving from the removal of reliefs to this package, including frozen bills and a temporary 15% discount, have created huge uncertainty and anxiety for pubs as they are making important investment and staffing decisions?

[Dan Tomlinson]

There is a big picture that we need to move to with business rates: making sure that, permanently, we have differential treatment for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses and those with higher value, particularly the large online warehouses that are causing the economic rebalancing that we do not really want to see and that is harming our high streets. The Government set out the reforms in the Budget in respect of the 5p reduction in the multiplier. As I have explained to Members, that is a transfer of nearly £1 billion in tax away from the high street—less tax—towards the larger online giants. I want to continue to engage on all tax matters that affect the high street in the run-up to the next Budget, and decisions will, of course, be made in the usual way.

Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief

Debate between Dan Tomlinson and Lisa Smart

Monday 5th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Tomlinson]

We are having a discussion today about agricultural property relief and business property relief. I am sure we will have many occasions in the coming weeks and months to continue to discuss the changes that the Government have made on business rates to support businesses through the transition, because of course there has been a significant increase in their rateable values, coming out of the pandemic. I would just say to Opposition Members that the changes to the rateable values and the valuation methodology were signed off by Conservative Ministers. We have made sure that we are providing support, for example business rates will be capped at 15% for many pubs this year.

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

It is wholly unacceptable that farming families in places such as Mellor and High Lane have had over a year of uncertainty and anguish since the Government first announced these tax hikes. The Government got it wrong and the changes we are talking about today are welcome, but will the Minister commit to consulting farming communities before making any future changes to taxes affecting farming communities? That was the step in the process that was missed and it could have saved them 14 months of anguish, had they got it right last time.

[Dan Tomlinson]

Because I sign them off, I can tell the hon. Lady that there are many consultations on tax changes that we publish alongside fiscal events. If she wished to engage with the consultation on electric vehicle taxation, she could do so; if she wished to engage with the consultation on the high-value council tax surcharge that will be published shortly, she could do so too. The Government have published many consultations on tax changes, and on those where formal consultations are not published—it is not universal—we continue to engage in detail with those who are affected, as we have done with this change.