Q: Another family run business in Chelmsford that’s been going for 25 years will see their monthly rates more than double from April. They’ve said they will simply have to close their doors if this goes ahead, resulting in 40 people losing their jobs.

Tomlinson replied:

The key thing to note here is that there is a significant difference between the change in the rateable value and the change in the business rates this year. We have stepped in to cap the increases for bills at £800 for those coming into the system for the first time, or for most high street businesses, the increase will be 15%. The very largest will see increases of 30%.

He also said:

I do understand that there are businesses all across the economy who will have seen increases in their rateable values since the pandemic. And that’s precisely why we stepped in with the support package.

The really small bookshops up and down the country, many, many of them will not be paying any business rates at all because they will be in receipt of small business rates relief. Of course, there will be some in some parts of the country that will have seen either the rates bill values increase or because of the government’s decision to slowly wind down the temporary pandemic support that will see an increase in their bills.

But we’re capping those increases this year and in subsequent years in order that the transition can be manageable for those businesses because of course, we want to support bookshops on our high streets. They are incredibly important, along with all the other high street retailers.