Lord Livermore (Lab)

My Lords, I am grateful for all the comments and questions raised throughout the debate. Let me start with the Motion tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and the comments made on that. The Motion he has laid relates to the Non-Domestic Rating (Definition of Qualifying Retail, Hospitality or Leisure Hereditament) Regulations 2025. These regulations set out the eligibility for the new multipliers, and they passed into law last year. As I said at the outset, the Government’s objective in this statutory instrument was to reflect the same definition for eligibility as the existing retail, hospitality and leisure relief. We want sectors that benefited under the previous relief to continue benefiting under the new relief. We have therefore retained the same approach to ensure continuity and fairness in our support for the sector while making this support permanent and uncapped. I have heard clearly in the course of this debate the strong views expressed and the passion for the sector. There were comments from the noble Lords, Lord Clement- Jones, Lord Freyberg and Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, and my noble friend Lord Watson of Wyre Forest, who I was sorry to see is not sitting on this side of the Committee. I hope there is nothing for the Whips to worry about in that. Noble Lords asked in the course of the debate many questions around recording studios. As I have said already, our objective in setting these regulations was to reflect the same definition for eligibility as the existing retail, hospitality and leisure relief. I suspect noble Lords will not like my answer here, but that existing relief is centred around retail, hospitality and leisure properties which are “reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public”. If a recording studio forms part of a single property with a qualifying hospitality or retail business, and the hospitality or retail aspect is the main purpose of the property, it will qualify for the lower multipliers. It is only if a property is wholly or mainly used as a recording studio that it will not qualify for the lower multipliers, as these are generally not open to the public.