Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the remarks by the owner of Leon, as reported by the Times on 7 April, regarding the impact of the increase in both business rates and national insurance on the profitability and viability of the catering sector.

The central challenge facing this Government when we took office was restoring economic stability, improving living standards and renewing our public services. This required a number of difficult decisions on tax, welfare, and spending, including an increase to employer National Insurance contributions.

The Government of course understands and respects the legitimate concerns that have been raised, and we have consistently acknowledged that there will be wider impacts as a result of these decisions. As part of this, the Government protected the smallest businesses by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500.

At the Budget last year, the Valuation Office announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation, for business rates purposes. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties.

In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills. This means most properties seeing increases have them capped at 15 per cent or less in 2026/27, or £800 for the smallest businesses.

The Government has also introduced new permanently lower multipliers for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties. These new multipliers are worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit over 750,000 properties.