Speeches by Tomlinson.

“Actually, I have remembered the second thing.”

“As you saw in my statement, I will now always make sure to be clear that yes, the rates and the multipliers are lower—”

“Good. There are two things that I would say. One is that it is coming in-house from 1 April; it is not in-house yet. The second important thing—actually, I have forgotten the second important thing.”

“Yes, we have enough resource. I do not think that, at the moment, the challenge with the Valuation Office Agency is a lack of resource. One of the longer-term challenges—I do not know whether you discussed this with my predecessor—was that the independence of the VOA made it a bit more difficult for Ministers to hold i…”

“The main lesson is that business rates are a very complicated tax. It is about giving it the space and, in both our political communication as a Government and our engagement with the sector, being really clear about the way in which lots of different things were happening on Budget day. My advice to the person in my r…”

“I don’t agree with that, because I think that some of the reliefs play a really important role. For example, the small business rates relief, which you receive if your rateable value is less than £12,000 and is then tapered between £12,000 and £15,000, is a really valuable relief. I believe that a third of businesses a…”

“This is really important. One of my big focuses as Minister is making sure that HMRC’s customer service improves. People will often be focused on individuals when they are doing their tax returns, how long they have to wait on the phone or how good our online services are, but with the Valuation Office Agency in partic…”

“We do want to see growth in Kent.”

“I do not agree with that.”

“This is really important. Our large infrastructure businesses and premises are valued using this receipts and expenditure methodology in a similar way to hotels, though in some ways it is complicated. It is similar but distinct to the challenge that pubs are facing. Because of some of the engagement we had before the B…”

“One of the vehicles for considering that will be the big high streets strategy that we are going to do across Government. Our intention, to be clear to the Committee, is not to announce the big fundamental parts of the business rates system as part of the high streets strategy; I do not think that you would like that, …”

“That is an important question, and it is worth me going through it. Different members of the industry had previously supported the guidance on how the methodology was applied to the valuation of pubs. There is this group called the Pubs Rating Forum, which consists of the British Beer and Pub Association, UKHospitality…”

“The objective is for business rates to broadly reflect rent. That is what is in the law, and that is how the system has operated for many decades. The intention of the review that we are carrying out is not to break from that for pubs—or for hotels, which we are going to look at, too, because they are valued in a simil…”

“There is also a range of other reforms. At the Budget, we published a call for evidence about the further transformation of business rates, which asked particularly about slab to slice. You will be familiar with the way that, a few years ago now, George Osborne changed the stamp duty system from a slab system to a slic…”

“Thank you, Chair, for giving me the chance to talk about this important topic with you. The significant change that we made at the Budget was to introduce a differential—”

“The hon. Member is right: a range of reliefs in the national insurance system help particular groups, including young people and those who have served in our military. It is right that those reliefs are there, and I am glad that the Government took the decision to extend them by two years. The Government publish guidan…”

“The draft Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance Up-rating Order sets the rates for both child benefit and guardian’s allowance, and will ensure that those benefits, for which Treasury Ministers are responsible and which are delivered by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, are uprated by inflation in April 2026. The dra…”

“indicated assent.”

“I beg to move, That the draft Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance Up-rating Order 2026, which was laid before this House on 12 January, be approved.”

“Let us be really clear: in this Parliament, we are going to see living standards rise, and we are going to do all we can to beat the forecast that the OBR set out. We beat the economic growth forecast last year by 50%. We know the record of the Conservative party: when it was in power, living standards fell over five y…”