Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department will take to help ensure that the proposed retention of 100 per cent of business rates income by local and regional government does not negatively impact local authorities with lower commercial property values or higher levels of town centre vacancy.

The government will support local leaders to deliver good growth in every postcode, while protecting business certainty and fairness between places.

The existing business rates retention system has mechanisms to ensure fairness between places and manage the level of risk local authorities are exposed to, whilst allowing them to benefit from driving growth. As we move towards 100% business rates retention across the sector collectively, we will work with local government to ensure the right mechanisms remain in place to support authorities with lower levels of business rates income. The business rates retention system will retain the structure of the existing system, including mechanisms to redistribute business rates to make sure locally retained rates reflect need to spend on public services.