Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 13

On 25 March 2025, the House of Commons voted by 320 to 180 to disagree with Lords Amendment 13 to the Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill. The amendment in question had been passed by the House of Lords and would have required a review of the threshold effects of the new business rates multiplier system. By voting to disagree, MPs rejected that amendment and kept the Bill on the Government's preferred terms. Labour MPs voted unanimously in favour, with Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Reform UK, the Democratic Unionist Party, and the Ulster Unionist Party all voting against. Three Green MPs and one independent supported the Government.

The Bill is a significant piece of legislation with two main purposes. First, it permanently restructures the business rates (the property tax paid by businesses on non-residential premises) system, introducing lower multipliers for retail, hospitality, and leisure premises and funding that cut by applying a higher multiplier to properties with a rateable value of at or above 500,000 pounds, which the Government describes as less than one per cent of all properties. Second, and more controversially, the Bill removes the charitable rate relief that private schools have historically enjoyed, meaning independent schools will pay standard business rates. This is part of a broader Labour commitment, alongside the earlier removal of VAT exemption for private school fees, to redirect tax advantages away from fee-charging schools and towards state education funding.

The vote revealed a straightforward party-political divide. Labour and its Co-operative allies voted in a bloc for the Government's position, while Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and smaller unionist and populist parties all voted against. The Liberal Democrats, despite broadly welcoming business rates reform, opposed the private school provisions and several of the higher multiplier measures. The vote was one of a series during the Bill's passage through a parliamentary "ping-pong" process, in which the Lords and Commons exchanged amendments repeatedly; related votes on 31 March 2025 show the Government continuing to overturn Lords amendments by similarly comfortable margins.