Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total business rate support package available to snooker and clubs is in (a) 2026, (b) 2027 and (c) 2028.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic.
To respond to those who are seeing large increases, Government has already acted to limit increases in bills, announcing a support package worth £4.3 billion package at the Budget.
The Government is also introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment has been made by the Valuation Office Agency of the footprint for snooker clubs and venues to accommodate snooker tables in calculating the 2026 business rates revaluation.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Snooker halls are valued in the same way as any other class of non-domestic property, through applying the statutory and common law principles that apply across non-domestic rating.
The practice note used for the 2023 revaluation is published online here. The same approach has been applied in 2026.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the impact of the increase in rateable values on snooker clubs and venues.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The amount of business rates paid on each property is based on the rateable value of the property, assessed by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), and the multiplier values, which are set by the Government. Rateable values are re-assessed every three years. Revaluations ensure that the rateable values of properties (i.e. the tax base) remain in line with market changes, and that the tax rates adjust to reflect changes in the tax base.
At the Budget, the 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 as they recover from the pandemic. To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government announced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years, including protection for ratepayers seeing their bills increase because of the revaluation. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down. This means most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
Without our support, the pub sector as a whole would have faced a 45% increase in the total bills they pay next year. Because of the support we’ve put in place, this has fallen to just 4%.
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. We are doing this by introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £900 million per year, and will benefit over 750,000 properties, including those on the high street.
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.
The National Insurance Contributions (NICs) Employment Allowance has been more than doubled to £10,500, ensuring that over half of businesses with National Insurance liabilities, including those in the hospitality sector, will either gain or see no change this year. A Tax Information and Impact Note was published alongside changes to employer NICs.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information her Department holds on whether Jeffrey Epstein helped set up meetings between her Department and JP Morgan on the sale of Sempra Commodities.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Public records of HM Treasury ministerial meetings are available from May 2010 onwards. HM Treasury has also conducted a proportionate search of its archives for the relevant period and has found no evidence of correspondence or meetings between Jeffrey Epstein and Treasury ministers, or any Treasury officials, in relation to this sale, or on any other matter.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department holds correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and former Ministers in her Department on the sale of Sempra Commodities.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Public records of HM Treasury ministerial meetings are available from May 2010 onwards. HM Treasury has also conducted a proportionate search of its archives for the relevant period and has found no evidence of correspondence or meetings between Jeffrey Epstein and Treasury ministers, or any Treasury officials, in relation to this sale, or on any other matter.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information her Department holds on meetings between Jeffrey Epstein and former Ministers from her Department.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Public records of HM Treasury ministerial meetings are available from May 2010 onwards. HM Treasury has also conducted a proportionate search of its archives for the relevant period and has found no evidence of correspondence or meetings between Jeffrey Epstein and Treasury ministers, or any Treasury officials, in relation to this sale, or on any other matter.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the number of businesses that will no longer be eligible for Small Business Rate Relief as a result of inflationary and revaluation-driven increases in rateable values at the 2026 revaluation.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) is available to businesses with a single property with a rateable value (RV) below the threshold of £15,000. If a business expands to a second property, it retains SBRR on the first property for 12 months. Following that, the business is not eligible for SBRR unless additional properties have an RV below £2,899 and their total property portfolio has an RV below £20,000 (£28,000 in London).
Currently, over a third of properties (more than 700,000) pay no business rates as they receive 100 per cent SBRR, with an additional c.60,000 benefiting from reduced bills as this relief tapers.
Every three years, all commercial properties are revalued by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). The 2026 revaluation, which will take effect from April 2026, will update RVs and may, therefore, affect businesses’ eligibility for SBRR. The revaluation process is ongoing and the VOA are required to publish a draft of all properties’ new RVs this year.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to continue the 40 percent relief on business rates for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure businesses into the 2026-27 financial year.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) relief has been extended year-by-year by previous governments since the pandemic. It has been a stopgap measure, and we recognise that businesses need longer term certainty on their business rates liabilities.
Without any Government intervention, RHL relief would have ended entirely in April 2025, creating a cliff-edge for businesses. Instead, the Government is providing a 40 per cent discount to RHL properties up to a cash cap of £110,0000 per business in 2025-26, ahead of introducing permanently lower rates for RHL properties with rateable values below £500,000 from April 2026.
Asked by: Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 57631 on Horizon IT System: Compensation, whether the Government has formally invited Fujitsu to re-bid for the Trader Support Service.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
All of our contract opportunities are publicly available through Contracts Finder and/or Find-a-Tender Service and are available to any economic operator that is able to meet the requirements of the procurement in compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 or The Procurement Regulations 2024, as applicable.