Speeches by Tomlinson.

“On the day of the change for pubs and music venues, we published an online tool that businesses could put in their rateable values into and see their bill. That was put up in lights, and I have had significant positive feedback about it. That is the sort of thing to do in future: bringing forward what the bill change w…”

“Just on that point, very briefly—”

“There are a number of Budgets between now and the 2029 revaluation. As I have said, given the fiscal position and all the constraints, we have made that decision with the 5p reduction, but the Government are not closed to going further on that. It will depend on a whole range of circumstances, and that decision will be…”

“There is a specific point about the broader relief for the retail, hospitality and leisure sector. I asked my officials to draw this out for me, because I thought this might come up. In 2013, there was a £1,000 relief for shops, then it was increased to £1,500, then there was none in 2016, then there was a—I will not b…”

“Yes. It is much easier and more direct in a line management chain, if there are challenges in a particular part of an organisation, to make sure that culture and performance can change, rather than having a Minister and someone in HMRC in one place and a whole separate organisation in another, without line management a…”

“Yes, there is a lesson that we can learn, and we learned it for the day we did the announcement on the pubs and music venues relief. It links in part to the lesson that I was just discussing on potentially publishing the rateable values earlier than the Budget, which is something I would look at in 2029. The other thin…”

“One thing that will change is that the organisation itself will be managed and overseen by JP Marks, who has been here before you, and by HMRC directly.”

“Yes.”

“But there are other things happening at the same time.”

“We have said that we are going to look at slab to slice reform. The question, of course, is: how do you design it? If you go from the kinks to a straighter line, what would be the implication of that? That is really worth looking at. We also want to continue to look at the design of some of the parts of the system that…”

“The second thing is that I want to be really clear that, even though it is coming in-house, the work that it does to value properties will remain fully independent. I want to make that point very clear. As for the VOA’s performance and its ability to get back to businesses as quickly as possible, I will now be having s…”

“Actually, I have remembered the second thing.”

“As you saw in my statement, I will now always make sure to be clear that yes, the rates and the multipliers are lower—”

“Good. There are two things that I would say. One is that it is coming in-house from 1 April; it is not in-house yet. The second important thing—actually, I have forgotten the second important thing.”

“Yes, we have enough resource. I do not think that, at the moment, the challenge with the Valuation Office Agency is a lack of resource. One of the longer-term challenges—I do not know whether you discussed this with my predecessor—was that the independence of the VOA made it a bit more difficult for Ministers to hold i…”

“The main lesson is that business rates are a very complicated tax. It is about giving it the space and, in both our political communication as a Government and our engagement with the sector, being really clear about the way in which lots of different things were happening on Budget day. My advice to the person in my r…”

“I don’t agree with that, because I think that some of the reliefs play a really important role. For example, the small business rates relief, which you receive if your rateable value is less than £12,000 and is then tapered between £12,000 and £15,000, is a really valuable relief. I believe that a third of businesses a…”

“This is really important. One of my big focuses as Minister is making sure that HMRC’s customer service improves. People will often be focused on individuals when they are doing their tax returns, how long they have to wait on the phone or how good our online services are, but with the Valuation Office Agency in partic…”

“We do want to see growth in Kent.”

“I do not agree with that.”