To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of replacing business rates with a transaction tax on retail sales in order to support the UK's high streets.
Answered on
24 April 2019
Business rates raise £25 billion in England annually, and are an important source of funding for key local services.
The Government concluded a fundamental review of business rates in 2016. Some respondents suggested alternative taxes, but there was no consensus and respondents were clear that these alternatives were not without their own issues.
Respondents agreed that property based taxes were easy to collect, difficult to avoid, stable and clearly linked with local authority spending. Following stakeholder responses, the Government decided to keep business rates as a property tax.
To support the high street, at Budget 2018 the Government announced Our Plan for the High Street – a package of support worth £1.6 billion.