Business Rates: Retail, Hospitality and Leisure

Debate between Dan Tomlinson and Paul Holmes

Monday 19th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Tomlinson]

York high street, in my hon. Friend’s constituency, is a beautiful and wonderful place where there are many fantastic businesses. I worked there for a time. I know that Members in all parts of the House value the businesses that keep their high streets vibrant and thriving. We are taking steps, and we took steps in the Budget, to support high street businesses through our £4.3 billion of support, and we will continue to engage with Members and with businesses on the further steps that we can take to support them.

[Paul Holmes (Hamble Valley) (Con)]

The Minister is talking in numbers, but out there on the doorsteps and in the streets and high streets, I have met a café owner and a publican whose businesses are busier than ever—they are selling more drinks and more food—but whose top line is shrinking because of the decisions being made by this Government. One landlady was in tears as she spoke to me about whether she should carry on, directly because of this Government’s policies. What advice would the Minister give her?

[Dan Tomlinson]

I hope that when the hon. Member was conversing with businesses in his constituency, he explained that this year, if a pub has a rateable value of less than £100,000, the policy as set out in the Budget will have capped those increases at 15%. I think it important for Members to do all that they can to help business owners pick through the complexities of the business rates system. It is a complicated system: there are many different reliefs, and there is a difference between the tax rates that are paid, the relief that is applied and the rateable value of the property. Of course some businesses are seeing their rateable values increase as we unwind from the pandemic, but that is precisely why the Government included that package of support in the Budget.

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Debate between Dan Tomlinson and Paul Holmes

Report stage
Monday 9th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Paul Holmes]

The hon. Gentleman says “only up to 1%”, but given the international situation, this country should be producing its own food, and that land should be protected. He may need to catch up, because I understand that the NFU now wants the Bill to go further and completely ban solar panels on high-quality land. I suggest that he speaks to the NFU again, and then comes back to this House and backs new clause 39. The NFU speaks up for our farmers, so we should listen if it is not happy with what is in the Bill. Instead of giving me a quote from a former NFU employee, the hon. Gentleman should listen to the NFU’s current leadership, and then maybe change his comments.

[Dan Tomlinson (Chipping Barnet) (Lab)]

Does the hon. Member believe that farmers are able to choose how best to use their land?

[Paul Holmes]

Of course I believe that farmers know how to make best use of their land, but this Government are taking power away from farmers, whether by increasing the power to issue compulsory purchase orders for land that farmers want to use to produce food, or by reducing the money that they will get from the CPOs that the Government are advocating for. Farmers see more and more agricultural land being taken out of use. I suggest that the hon. Gentleman reads the Bill and the measures that the Minister is bringing forward, which undermine our farmers and stop them from being able to do the job that they want to do.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dan Tomlinson]

I agree with those points. It would also make it virtually impossible to meet our manifesto commitment, on which we were elected, to build the 1.5 million homes that we need over this Parliament.

[Paul Holmes]

The hon. Member knows that I am a big fan of his. He makes a speech about our and other amendments blocking the delivery of homes. Will he therefore criticise his Government, who have reduced the number of homes required in his constituency through reducing the number of houses being built in London under his mayor?

[Dan Tomlinson]

I expect the hon. Member knows that the housing targets have been reduced in London because of the additional premium that was put on by the previous Government just to make life more difficult for the Mayor of London, which we all know Conservatives love to do. We are trying to be reasonable and proportionate in the location of the new homes.

As I was saying, it is important for us to do all we can to ensure that we can hit our target of 1.5 million new homes. As much as I respect my hon. Friend the Member for North East Hertfordshire and his work in this space, I hope his amendment will not command the support of the House today.

I know my hon. Friend and Members on both sides of the House are strong supporters of social housing, but without the unamended changes in the Bill, we will not get the social homes that we need to be built. People have spoken movingly about those living in temporary accommodation. I spent four years or so as a child living in emergency and temporary accommodation. I was homeless for a number of years. Back then—15 or 20 years ago—there were not that many young children who were homeless and in temporary accommodation. There are now 160,000 children—one in 21 children in London, one in every single class—in temporary accommodation. We cannot allow a system that fails both nature and those children to persist. I implore any colleagues thinking of voting for the amendment to think of those children and the vital homes that could be built, and built quickly and at pace.