Business rate discounts should be offered to small and medium-sized firms before wider reform to the tax system, Labour has said.
The Opposition is expected to force a House of Commons vote on Tuesday in order to press the Government to do more to help struggling businesses.
The party’s analysis of Office for National Statistics data suggests that up to 332,000 businesses are at risk under the current approach.
A Labour motion tabled in the Commons, as part of time allocated to it for Opposition Day Debates, calls on the Government to support businesses by “freezing the business rates multiplier and extending the threshold for small business rates relief from £15,000 rateable value to £25,000 in 2022/23”.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “Our high street businesses do so much to enrich our lives and our communities, facing huge adversity in the past year.
“They are struggling right now, with a cliff-edge in rates relief coming up in March, and increasing shortages and supply chain issues increasing pressure and costs.
“The next Labour government will scrap business rates. We will carry out the biggest overhaul of business taxation in a generation, so our businesses can lead the pack, not watch opportunities go elsewhere.
“Today we are urging MPs to get behind this urgent change, and back cutting business rates for our brilliant British businesses.”
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