Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will extend the 12-month Business Rates holiday to the furniture and furnishings manufacturing sector.

The Government has provided enhanced support to the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors through business rates relief, given the direct and acute impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on those sectors.

A range of further measures to support all businesses, including those not eligible for the business rates holiday, such as manufacturers, has also been made available.

These include the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help firms to keep people in employment, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and VAT deferrals.