Pre-school Education: Business Rates
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to take steps to lower business rates on early years education settings.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson
Business rates are a broad-based tax on the value of non-domestic properties, including early years education settings. At the Budget, the Government announced a £4.3 billion support package to support ratepayers across all sectors seeing bill increases. As a result of the Budget package, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases. This also means most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
More broadly, in 2026-27, DfE expect to provide over £9.5 billion for childcare entitlements for children aged from 9 months to 4 years. This is over £1 billion more compared to 2025-26, as it delivers a full year of the expanded 30 hours entitlements for working parents and an above inflation increase to funding rates.
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