Speeches by Tomlinson.

“It is a big, long-term change.”

“I expect that we will publish our high streets strategy before the Budget this year.”

“Well, one of the things that lots of businesses will have done is go online and look at the page that I and officials made sure was signed off and clear before the Budget. The UKSA said in its reply that we provided a good level of detail on the impact—”

“Of course, in the run-up to the Budget we considered the fact that the independent Low Pay Commission had come forward with its recommendations on the national living wage, and the Government’s decision was to accept those. I am aware, through representations from Members of Parliament and from businesses and the busin…”

“One of the things—it may be helpful for Helen to come in in a second—is that, for example, we know that only 1% of retail hospitality and leisure properties are seeing their bill go up by more than 100% this year. The shop in your constituency that you are referring to is a relative outlier, because only 1% of business…”

“I think that the challenge—this is a lesson for Government—is that we legislated for an up to 20p reduction in the multiplier. We chose to go for a 5p, rather than a 20p, reduction for the reasons that I set out relating to fiscal sustainability. We decided to make sure that that 5p reduction, worth almost £1 billion, …”

“I believe—I don’t have the text right in front of me—that the manifesto also said in the next sentence, and you may have it there, that we would look to see how we could reform it to support investment and to support high street businesses, and we are doing that, too.”

“I do not want to comment in too much detail on the specific business, because I do not know the details—”

“Because we knew that businesses would be coming into the system for the first time, we introduced these cash caps at £800 each year. Even if, say, a business is coming in and its new rateable value will mean that its business rates bill is, let’s say, £10,000—if it is coming in for the first time and that is what its f…”

“I came in on 1 September with a whole range of tax heads and elements of the tax system to focus on with officials and Ministers in the run-up to the Budget, and we had a whole range of meetings on business rates. It is worth me being really clear that we received data from the Valuation Office Agency about the changes…”

“The changes that we made at the Budget are significant—the £900 million shift away. The business rates system is still here. We are not saying now that in future Budgets the system will be abolished in its entirety, but we are looking at what we can do to significantly lower the burden on high street businesses, and we…”

“Because of taxpayer confidentiality we are not allowed to ask about specific individual businesses—and it would not be right for me to do it—but we get a really comprehensive set of figures from the VOA, analysed by the officials at HMRC, which will say, for example, “Minister, this many businesses will come into the b…”

“That change is the first time that we have had the possibility within the business rates system to set different tax rates for high street properties and larger properties—the online giants. As I said in the statement, that now means that the gap between the smallest high street properties and the largest properties is…”

“The first thing I would say—this is a challenge to say to an individual business, but for members of the Committee it is worth being aware of the overall changes that are taking place in the business rates system—is that 59% of retail, hospitality and leisure properties will see their bills either falling or flat. It i…”

“I would be very happy if you come back to me after 3 March.”

“It is certainly something I will be willing to consider.”

“Shared offices is, again, another sector with issues that I have been focusing on. I have met with the sector to talk about the changes that are coming down the track for some of them. This is less about the unwind from the pandemic, or changes since the pandemic, and more about changes in case law, in terms of how oth…”

“Not other than to say that they will be set out in the usual way. We will make sure they are set out clearly in the spring forecast on 3 March, which is now just a couple of weeks away. It will apply in line with the statement of funding policy in the usual way because this is a fully devolved system.”

“No, the caps are in place for the whole period of the revaluation. The previous Government’s plan was to stop some of these changes between revaluations. We have clearly set out that, until April 2029, which is the planned date for the next revaluation, these caps will be in place. Of course, there are caps again next …”

“It certainly is not, no. One thing we have sought to do is make sure that we have put caps in across the whole system this time.”