Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Hospitality Sector and SMEs

Tuesday 9 December 2025 · 5 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Skipton was voted the happiest town in Britain to live in, partly due to its strong hospitality sector facing challenges.
  • Independent bookshops in Bath will see their business rates bill rise by more than 70%, according to recent changes.
  • The Chancellor announced plans to reduce business rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses, aiming for the lowest rates since 1991.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Julian Smith Con Skipton and Ripon
Economy Energy Business & Trade
Context

Skipton was voted the happiest town in Britain, partly due to its thriving hospitality sector. The sector has faced challenges such as energy cost rises and national insurance increases during the pandemic.

Question

Last week, Skipton was voted the happiest town in Britain to live in. One of the reasons for that is its hospitality sector. Through COVID, energy cost rises, national insurance rises and other challenges, that hospitality sector is facing massive challenges. I urge the Government to look again at reliefs and multipliers. Over the weekend, so many pubs and hotels raised with me the fact that they are not going to invest. We need the growth and we need the jobs. Will the Government look at how they can make things easier for the pub and hospitality industry?

Answer from Dan Tomlinson (The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury)

If I had a such a charming Member of Parliament, I would also be as happy as his constituents in Skipton. I thank him for his question. We considered the support really carefully in advance of the Budget decisions announced last month. There is a challenge in that the revaluation, which was instigated by the previous Government and is carried out independently by the Valuation Office Agency, means that some businesses have seen their values increase significantly since the pandemic. That is why the Government are putting in £4 billion of support over the coming years, with around half of that coming next year to support businesses. Many will see their increases capped at either £800 or 15%. We think that that support will provide significant help to those businesses, alongside the underlying reform we are making to rebalance the system in favour of the high street.

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Q2 Wera Hobhouse Lib Dem Bath
Taxation Business & Trade

Question

May I give the Minister another example in which the numbers simply do not stack up? Mr B’s independent bookshop in Bath will see its business rates bill rise by more than 70% after factoring in changes to rateable value. The changes were packaged as a move away from short-term fixes, yet vital discounts have been scrapped and replaced with less-generous support and an unclear transitional relief system. How can he justify such a stark increase in business rates? It is a challenge for Bath’s cherished bookshops—we have three—which we want to support.

Answer from Dan Tomlinson (The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury)

It is important that we all communicate to the small businesses in our constituencies, as I was doing this weekend, that there is a difference when it comes to the increase in the rateable value. It may be that the business to which the hon. Lady refers—I like good small independent bookshops myself—has seen a large increase in its value since the pandemic, but precisely because that has happened in some cases, we are implementing a significant support package this year. That will mean that no business that has a rateable value of less than £100,000 will see an increase in its bills of more than either 15% or £800.

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Q3 Clive Lewis Lab Norwich South
Economy Business & Trade

Question

In Norwich there is a saying: there is a church for every Sunday and a pub for every day of the week. After 14 years of austerity, the numbers are a lot lower. After this Budget, many pub landlords—small and medium-sized businesses—tell me that we are not going far enough, and that many of them will go under. They need more support, and they need it soon. If the changes go through, I fear that Norwich will not have that saying at all; we will have hardly any pubs. Can we not put more of the burden on the pub companies and big corporations, which should be paying their fair share, rather than on the small and medium-sized businesses and small pub landlords, who cannot pay what is coming at them?

Answer from Dan Tomlinson (The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury)

One of the things we announced at the Budget is a rebalancing in the system away from properties that have large rateable values and towards the small businesses on our high streets. That shift from the large to the smaller properties is worth almost £1 billion and supports them in the business rates system, as part of our work to reform business rates and support our high streets.

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Q4 James Wild Con North West Norfolk
Taxation Business & Trade

Question

The Chancellor promised a new golden era of hospitality, but the reality of her business rates raid, as the British Beer and Pub Association has said, is<br/>‘sleepless nights, pay cuts and staff layoffs’<br/>for publicans, who will be paying an extra £13,000 on average. Why did the Chancellor tell businesses last week that their taxes were going down when they are going up, and will she think again and change the multipliers?

Answer from Dan Tomlinson (The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury)

The multipliers are a product of the change in the valuation, and they did come down. We brought them down even further for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. Without intervention this year, the bills paid by pubs would have increased by 45% as a result of the increase in value since the pandemic; because of this Government’s significant intervention this year, bills are going up by 4%. That is the impact of the changes this Government has made.

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Q5 Daisy Cooper Lib Dem St Albans
Economy Taxation Business & Trade
Context

High street hospitality businesses face significant increases in business rates, contrary to government promises of lower rates. UKHospitality reports an average increase of 76% for hospitality businesses over the next three years compared to other sectors.

Question

Daisy Cooper stated that high street hospitality businesses are on a knife edge with the current situation, calling it a disaster in the making. She noted that despite government claims of rebalancing business rates, UKHospitality says the average increase for hospitality businesses will be 76% over three years compared to warehouses (16%), offices (7%), and large supermarkets (4%). Cooper criticised the Government's repeated assurances of permanently lower business rates, which led businesses to make decisions based on those promises. She implored the Minister to reconsider using powers to reduce multipliers and look at an emergency VAT cut.

Answer from The Chancellor

The Chancellor responded that they have rebalanced business rates by setting out plans to reduce multipliers for retail, hospitality, and leisure properties. He stated this is a rebalancing in the system, making tax rates for those businesses—the smallest RHL properties—lowest since 1991. However, due to an unwinding of reductions in property values during the pandemic and recovery, there has been an increase in business property values. The Government will spend £2 billion this year capping increases at either 5% or 15%, depending on specific circumstances.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Cooper's request to reduce multipliers further and consider VAT cut was not addressed directly.

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