The Conservatives have promised to abolish business rates for high street shops and pubs if they win the next general election.
Speaking at the party’s conference on Monday (6 October), Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said Labour’s tax rises were ‘too much to bear’ for small businesses, warning that many towns were seeing ‘pubs closing, shops sitting empty, [and] high streets hollowed out.’
Under the proposal, a future Conservative Government would reportedly introduce a 100% rebate on business rates for shops and pubs on the high street, covering bills of up to £110,000 a year. Councils would be fully reimbursed for the lost income, with the plan expected to cost around £4bn annually by 2029–30.
A Labour spokesperson criticised the announcement, saying: ‘The Conservatives promised to explain how they’d fund their policies, yet made a multi-billion-pound pledge without saying how they’d pay for it. It’s the same old Tories — the same old policies. They didn’t work then, and you can’t trust them now.’
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