Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 9 January 2025 to Question 19680 on High Streets Task Force, what discussions his Department had with retailers on the impact of the reduction in retail, hospitality and leisure business rate relief from April 2025.

Across Government, Ministers and officials meet with a range of retailers to understand the challenges they face. I have met with the Retail Sector Council where I heard members’ views about the impact of the Budget. More recently, I attended a roundtable organised by the British Retail Consortium, attended by CEOs and Senior Executives from leading retailers, with discussion points including the impact of the Budget and Business Rates.

More broadly, HMT are conducting engagement on future business rate reform and are open to receiving written evidence from stakeholders on the priority areas, prior to March 2025. This will provide retail businesses of any size the opportunity to share their concerns directly with HMT.