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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support his Department is providing to District Councils in respect of the payment of the business rate levy due during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government has deferred the payment of £2.6 billion which billing authorities, including district councils, were due to make over the next three months under the business rates retention scheme. The Government will also be paying authorities £9.57 billion to compensate them for waiving the business rates bills of ratepayers occupying retail, leisure and other premises, in line with the Government's policy in response to Covid-19 of reducing the rates burden on businesses.