IT’D be unreasonable to pay workers furlough three years after the pandemic ended, so it’s only fair that the equivalent emergency measures for businesses also come to an end. The changes to business rates will tip the balance towards smaller high-street businesses, whilst ensuring big businesses pay their fair share. But there was a need to respond rapidly after businesses saw an unusually large increase in valuations and underlying business rates, leaving the benefit of higher permanent reliefs wanting.

With 15,000 pubs closing since 2000, the hospitality sector has faced a perfect storm: fourteen years of Tory-stagnation, COVID, and, most recently, soaring energy costs. Still, if any other sector asked for the same business rates relief - essentially, asking to divert resources from our NHS, welfare and pensions, and borders – it’d be a hard ask. After all, one could argue the sector has received a huge amount of support – the furlough schemes, multi-year extension of business rates relief, and alcohol duty reduction.

But Labour knows that these high-street businesses are more than just businesses. The unfortunate sight of boarded-up windows has become all too familiar. Government must deliver on its commitment to breathe life into our streets.

If we recognise the value of these high-street businesses as public goods, we must commit the necessary resources to sustain them. That’s why the revisions to business rates multipliers deliver a more progressive system, benefiting smaller businesses, instead of multi-national warehouse companies. This move was the correct one, and these changes were well intended, but flummoxed by the drastic rise in valuations. Recognising this, the Chancellor is creating a package that rightly provides relief for those smaller businesses that need it.

We all know those local business owners who are a bit too vocal on politics – even for their most loyal regulars – and whose top priority is protecting their bottom line. But we also recognise that there are many more whose raison d’être is serving the community and providing a vital source of livelihood for our communities.

In response to these initial rates changes, the knee-jerk reaction of some publicans was to universally ban Labour parliamentarians from their establishments, something unhelpful, unreasonable, and – potentially – illegal. I welcome all those who have worked constructively with government – such as the many businesses in my constituency – sharing their concerns with local MPs. There are dozens of Labour backbenchers ready to make the case to Treasury - pubs should be backing them not banning us. We’ve seen what can be achieved when backbenchers band together – after all, you only need to look as far as the changes to the farm inheritance tax. Whilst constructive approaches are needed, so is an urgent response. It doesn’t bear imagining the gaping holes created in our communities if hospitality businesses shut up shop or turned the lights out – even for a day. But one doesn’t have to imagine – that’s been the story for too many high streets for far too long. It’s our government’s task to turn this around.