Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the business rates relief for properties announced in Budget 2018 will apply to premises in planning use class D2.

At the Budget the Government announced a one third discount off business rate bills for high streets and town centres worth almost £900 million. The discount will be available, subject to state aid, to retail properties with a rateable value of less than £51,000 such as shops, restaurants, cafes and drinking establishments. We will publish guidance shortly to help local authorities determine eligibility and implement the discount.

Since 2016 the Government has announced a raft of measures to support business, including permanently doubling Small Business Rate Relief from 50 per cent to 100 per cent for eligible businesses, and raising the threshold for 100 per cent relief from £6,000 to £12,000. As a result, over 655,000 small businesses – occupiers of a third of all properties – pay no business rates at all. In addition, the Government brought forward to April 2018 the switch in the annual indexation of business rates from RPI to the main measure of inflation, currently CPI, which will be a saving for all ratepayers.