Retail Trade: Small Businesses
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what steps he is considering to support small and medium sized businesses operating in high street premises.
Answered by Treasury
The Government’s Plan for Small Businesses sets out measures to support high street businesses by addressing crime, updating our licensing regime and targeting funding through our Pride in Place and High Street and Growth Incubator programmes. Businesses on the high street are also benefitting from new tools to access finance, action on late payments and regulatory costs, greater digital adoption and easier access to business support through the Business Growth Service.
Permanently lower business rate multipliers for retail, hospitality and leisure properties announced last year are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties. Alongside this we introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion to protect ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills due to revaluation.
Further action will be announced in a new High Streets Strategy later this year.
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