No future discounts have been factored into fiscal forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK’s public finances watchdog. Labour says the last Conservative government left it a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances, which ministers need to plug. The current business rates relief saves the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors a combined £2.41 billion a year, according to Altus research. Labour said it would reform the business rates system in its pre-election manifesto but has not announced specific changes since coming into Government. James Murray, the Exchequer Secretary, told Parliament last month that “the Government is committed to a business rates system which raises the same revenue but in a fairer way”.
