Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 2

On 25 March 2025, the House of Commons voted 322 to 117 to disagree with Lords Amendment 2 to the Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill. The amendment in question would have exempted so-called "anchor stores" (large retail properties that typically anchor shopping centres or high streets) from the higher business rates multiplier the government plans to introduce for properties with a rateable value of £500,000 or above. By voting to reject the Lords change, the Commons maintained the government's original position that all such high-value properties, including anchor stores, should face the higher multiplier.

The vote matters because it determines how the government funds a permanent reduction in business rates for smaller retail, hospitality and leisure properties. The government's plan is to pay for that relief by levying a higher multiplier on properties valued at or above £500,000, which it says represent fewer than one percent of all rateable properties. If anchor stores had been carved out of that higher rate, as the Lords amendment proposed, the revenue available to fund relief for smaller businesses would have been reduced. The Bill also removes charitable business rates relief for private schools, a separate but connected element of the legislation that has attracted significant debate.

Labour MPs voted unanimously in favour of rejecting the Lords amendment, while all voting Conservatives opposed the government, backing the Lords change. Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist Party also voted against the government. The Liberal Democrats, represented in debate by Munira Wilson, raised concerns about both the anchor store provisions and the removal of private school rate relief, and the Greens supported the government. The division is one of several in a prolonged back-and-forth between the Commons and the Lords over this Bill, with further ping-pong votes taking place on 31 March 2025, at which the Commons continued to reassert its original position on multiple Lords amendments.