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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of small firms and shops in (a) Kent, (b) Medway and (c) Gillingham and Rainham constituency which may have potentially reduced business rates.

The Chancellor announced at the 2014 Autumn Statement an extra £650 million of support for 2015-16 bills, bringing the total support of 2013 and 2014 Autumn Statement polices to £1.4 billion. This help includes:

• doubling small business rate relief for a further year. In England, this means an estimated 385,000 properties will pay no rates at all, while a further 190,000 properties will benefit from tapered relief.
• a 2% cap on the increase of the small business rates multiplier. This is a continuation of the 2% cap introduced in 2014-15 as part of Autumn Statement 2013 measures;
• increasing the temporary £1,000 discount for shops, pubs and restaurants with rateable values below £50,000 to £1,500 for 2015-16, benefitting an estimated 300,000 properties in England;
• extending the existing transitional relief scheme for two years for properties with a rateable value up to and including £50,000.

These policies are in addition to previous Autumn Statement measures that continue into 2015-16, including:

• a 50 per cent discount for 18 months to new occupants of vacant shops;
• allowing businesses to keep their small business rate relief for a year where they take on an additional property;
• business rates relief for empty new builds; and
• allowing businesses to pay their business rate bills over 12 months, in order to assist with their cash flow.

Central Government also now funds 50% of any local discount granted.

The Department does not collect data on a constituency basis, but Gillingham and Rainham constituency lies entirely within the Medway Borough Council boundary. Table 1 shows the number of properties in 2014-15 within the Medway Borough Council boundary that have benefitted from business rates measures extended in this year’s Autumn Statement. Table 2 presents the same information but for Kent County Council, while Table 3 provides a breakdown of the business rates measures by the thirteen local authorities that lie within the Kent County Council boundary.