Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 1

On 25 March 2025, the House of Commons voted 316 to 183 to disagree with Lords Amendment 1 to the Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill. The amendment, passed by the House of Lords, would have removed qualifying healthcare properties from a higher business rates multiplier that the Government intends to use to fund relief for smaller retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. By voting to disagree with the Lords, the Commons rejected the amendment and maintained the Government's original position on which properties would be subject to the higher rate.

The vote is one part of a broader package of reforms to the business rates system. The Bill introduces a permanent lower multiplier for smaller retail, hospitality and leisure properties, funded by a higher multiplier applied to all properties with a rateable value of at least 500,000 pounds, which the Government says represents less than one percent of all rateable properties. Removing healthcare hereditaments from the higher rate, as the Lords proposed, would have reduced the revenue raised and therefore the level of relief available to smaller businesses. The Bill also removes the charitable business rates relief previously enjoyed by private schools, a separate but related measure that attracted considerable debate during this sitting.

The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 315 Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted supported the Government's motion to disagree with the Lords. Every Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Reform UK, Democratic Unionist Party, Green and Traditional Unionist Voice MP who voted opposed it. One Independent MP voted with the Government. The Liberal Democrats, while broadly supportive of making business rates relief permanent, raised objections both to the removal of charitable relief from private schools and to the impact of reduced relief on businesses already struggling with rising costs. The Conservatives used the debate to criticise the Government's wider economic record, including the increase in employers' national insurance contributions. Subsequent divisions on 31 March 2025 show the Bill continued through further ping-pong (the process of amendments passing between the two chambers) with the Commons again voting to reject Lords amendments by similar margins.