Business Rates

John Glen Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Tomlinson]

As a London MP, I do not get the joy of staying in a hotel in my hon. Friend’s constituency—instead, I get the joy of the Northern line on the route home. She asks an important question about hotels, which are valued in a different way from some other sectors. Their methodology is well established, but as with pubs, specific concerns have been raised, and the Government think it is right to review how hotels are valued for business rates purposes to ensure their valuations accurately reflect the market for those sectors. I intend to engage with hotel businesses and their representative groups on this important issue. Any future changes to business rates for hotels or other businesses will be considered in the usual way as part of the usual Budget processes.

[John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)]

Can I respectfully remind the Minister that when Jonathan Russell from the Valuation Office Agency came before the Select Committee, he was very clear that the impact of the rate rises was made known to the Treasury before the Budget? The VOA provided data drops over 12 months, which did not detail the rates for individual properties, but provided a clear overview at a central level and revealed that 5,000 pubs would see their rates double. It is just not credible for the Minister to say that the Treasury did not know what was going to happen, is it? It had a very clear view of the impact of the changes that it was imposing.

[Dan Tomlinson]

We were aware of the changes to rateable values that were going to be published at the Budget, which is why we came forward with a significant package of support to help businesses adjust to their new values. For example, yesterday, Waterstones came out to express its support for our changes to business rates, because the lower multipliers that we have put into the system will support its business. Businesses across the country are benefiting from those lower multipliers. As I have said, more than half are seeing their bills either flat or falling. We have also put in place significant transitional relief support, with caps this year, next year and the year after. That is because we were aware of the effect of the changes to valuation, although I was not aware of what would happen subsequently with the pubs and their views. I have engaged with them on the methodology, and because of that we are launching this review. We think it is right to look carefully at that methodology.