Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changing the eligibility for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure support on the monetary value of that support to individual firms.

The Government is 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.

Since these new multipliers were announced at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government has been clear that the intention was for their scope to broadly reflect the scope of the current RHL relief.

In addition, the Government is providing a £4.3 billion support package to protect ratepayers from large overnight bill increases. This includes extending the supporting small business scheme to those losing RHL relief, which will cap bill increases at the higher of the relevant Transitional Relief cap or £800. As a result, the majority of those seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less, or £800 for the smallest, next year.