Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support his Department provides to micro businesses to manage their business rates.

Many micro businesses do not pay business rates, as they do not occupy rateable property or they benefit from Small Business Rates Relief (SBRR). SBRR was doubled to 100 per cent for businesses with rateable values under £12,000 from April 2017, meaning 600,000 small businesses now pay no business rates. Furthermore, all business, including micro businesses, will benefit from the Government’s decision to bring forward the switch of the annual indexation of business rates from RPI to CPI by two years to April 2018.