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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to encourage businesses into high street premises in town and city centres.

The Government has taken action to help high streets thrive through a range of targeted tax breaks, sensible planning changes and measures to ensure fairer parking for motorists. At Budget, we announced the biggest ever cut in business rates in England – worth £6.7 billion over the next five years, cutting business rates for all ratepayers, and meaning 600,000 of the smallest businesses won’t have to pay business rates again

We have also given over £18 million to fund successful initiatives such as “Love Your Local Market” and the “Great British High Street Competition”, and have recently announced a digital pilot programme in Gloucestershire, to support town centres and SMEs to compete in the digital era.