Member

The noble Lord, Lord Thurlow, talked about anchor stores. The Government’s view is that the fairest approach is to ask all properties with a rateable value of £500,000 and above to contribute more to support the high street—a point I have made a number of times. Anchor stores are often part of a large retail chain that will also have a number of properties with a rateable value below £500,000. Where retail properties’ rateable value is below £500,000, they will benefit from the lower tax rates for qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure properties from April 2026. The Valuation Office Agency has published an ad hoc data release related to properties with a rateable value of £500,000 and over, which can be found on GOV.UK. On the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, about Amazon being valued differently from the high street, all properties are valued by the VOA to the same standard of rateable value. We should not intervene in this independent process.