Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of businesses closing and vanishing from high streets on councils seeking payment of business rate liabilities.

Business rates are an important source of funding for services local Government provides. A fair business rates system is one in which everyone pays their share

As announced at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government will 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 eligible RHL properties benefit from much-needed certainty and support.

Ahead of the new multipliers being introduced, the Government prevented RHL business rates 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.