Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of business rates on the viability of small businesses operating on the high street.

The Government is committed to creating a fairer business rates system that supports small businesses and protects the high street.

Over a third of properties (more than 700,000) already pay no business rates as they receive 100 per cent Small Business Rates Relief, with an additional c.60,000 benefiting from reduced bills as this relief tapers.

To deliver our manifesto pledge, we intend to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties, with rateable values below £500,000 from 2026-27.

This permanent tax cut will ensure that they benefit from much-needed certainty and support. To target support towards smaller RHL properties, the Government intends to give the biggest cut to RHL properties currently paying the small business multiplier – those with a rateable value less than £51,000. The rates for any new business rate multipliers will be set at Budget 2025 so that the Government can take into account the upcoming revaluation outcomes, as well as the economic and fiscal context.

Ahead of these changes being made, the Government recognises that businesses will need support in 2025-26. As such, we have prevented the current RHL relief from ending in April 2025, extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business. We have also frozen the small business multiplier, protecting over a million properties from inflationary bill increases.