Oral Answers to Questions

Valerie Vaz Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Tomlinson]

I hope the microphone picked that up.

We will make further announcements this afternoon specifically focused on pubs, but I understand that there are businesses across the economy that will have seen increases in their rateable values since the pandemic. That is precisely why we have stepped in with our support package.

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall and Bloxwich) (Lab)]

Here’s another one: what assessment has the Minister made of the impact on really small independent high street bookshops? This is the National Year of Reading; we want them to stay open, not closed.

[Dan Tomlinson]

Many really small bookshops up and down the country will not pay any business rates at all because they will be in receipt of small business rate relief. Of course, there will be some that will have seen either their rateable value increase, or—because of the Government’s decision to slowly wind down the temporary pandemic support—an increase in their bills. We are capping those increases in this year and in subsequent years so that transition can be manageable for those businesses. Of course we want to support bookshops on our high streets; they are incredibly important, along with all the other high street retailers up and down the country.