Speeches by Tomlinson.

“Yes, £34 billion. That is a lot of money; that is a very significant share of the tax revenues that we pull in. That is broadly the same as was forecast, before the spring statement, for next year. Some people want to make the point that this is a very significant tax rise overall. Actually, this year coming, after we …”

“It is difficult for me to comment on timelines for this, because in part it depends on the fiscal position in future Budgets and the competing priorities, which your Committee is more aware of than most people, that will be on the Government. We are seeing borrowing fall in every year, and that is the sort of thing tha…”

“If they are valued at less than £100,000 and they are already in the business rates system, their bills will be capped at 15%. Even if their rateable value has tripled and it is right at the very end of the distribution of changes in value, which is rare—I believe that only a very small percentage have seen their ratea…”

“That is one of the big challenges with the business rates system. There are so many different sectors with so many different pressures and challenges. That is why, overall, we came forward with the changes to transitional relief and the supporting small business scheme. I do not know about individual businesses, but if…”

“The main thing to be aware of on business rates is that I believe that, net, this year coming, they will raise £34 billion. Dr Dickinson indicated assent.”

“I am always happy to receive correspondence on these matters. You asked about recording studios in the House. One of the key things for the relief is that venues are “reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public”. As recording studios are not generally open to members of the public in the same way as a pub o…”

“This is difficult. It is definitely not easy to draw a line in the system and give relief to some businesses and properties and not others. First, the guidance that we have used draws significantly—in fact, in many places it is a carbon copy—on the guidance that was published for councils when the previous Government i…”

“As I say, particularly for high street businesses, there has been a lot of chopping and changing every single year for the last decade. I don’t know whether it happened before, too, in the years since 1988 or whenever. That is the sort of thing that we want to move away from with high street businesses. That is why we …”

“We will have more Budgets in this Parliament, of course. This revaluation will go on for three years, so until 2029. Alongside that, the other reform we will introduce, which I am sure there will be questions on, is to make changes to the valuation methodology for some sectors, some of which we said we will look at bef…”

“On the day of the change for pubs and music venues, we published an online tool that businesses could put in their rateable values into and see their bill. That was put up in lights, and I have had significant positive feedback about it. That is the sort of thing to do in future: bringing forward what the bill change w…”

“Just on that point, very briefly—”

“There are a number of Budgets between now and the 2029 revaluation. As I have said, given the fiscal position and all the constraints, we have made that decision with the 5p reduction, but the Government are not closed to going further on that. It will depend on a whole range of circumstances, and that decision will be…”

“There is a specific point about the broader relief for the retail, hospitality and leisure sector. I asked my officials to draw this out for me, because I thought this might come up. In 2013, there was a £1,000 relief for shops, then it was increased to £1,500, then there was none in 2016, then there was a—I will not b…”

“Yes. It is much easier and more direct in a line management chain, if there are challenges in a particular part of an organisation, to make sure that culture and performance can change, rather than having a Minister and someone in HMRC in one place and a whole separate organisation in another, without line management a…”

“Yes, there is a lesson that we can learn, and we learned it for the day we did the announcement on the pubs and music venues relief. It links in part to the lesson that I was just discussing on potentially publishing the rateable values earlier than the Budget, which is something I would look at in 2029. The other thin…”

“One thing that will change is that the organisation itself will be managed and overseen by JP Marks, who has been here before you, and by HMRC directly.”

“Yes.”

“But there are other things happening at the same time.”

“We have said that we are going to look at slab to slice reform. The question, of course, is: how do you design it? If you go from the kinks to a straighter line, what would be the implication of that? That is really worth looking at. We also want to continue to look at the design of some of the parts of the system that…”

“The second thing is that I want to be really clear that, even though it is coming in-house, the work that it does to value properties will remain fully independent. I want to make that point very clear. As for the VOA’s performance and its ability to get back to businesses as quickly as possible, I will now be having s…”