Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of using the 2023 valuations for business rates with multipliers of 0.2994 up to £51,000 and 0.333 over £51,000.

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.

In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills.

At Budget, the Government announced wider reforms to business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties, reducing tax rates paid for by a higher rate on the top one per cent of most expensive properties.

The introduction of permanent, lower RHL tax rates is worth almost £1 billion to over 750,000 RHL properties. The tax rate on smaller high street businesses will be 33% lower than for businesses with the most valuable properties.

Furthermore, from April, every pub and live music venue will get 15% off its new business rates bill on top of the support announced at Budget, and then bills will be frozen in real terms for a further two years.