12:00 pm
Karen Dee: We have not taken a specific view on the £50,000, which is not mentioned in the Bill. The CBI is not opposed to the concept of a threshold. We understand the desire to protect small businesses, although, against that background of not opposing it, we would comment that business rates are not necessarily a good measure of a business’s ability to pay or of its profitability. There are some sectors, which are not small businesses, that will find it an equally difficult burden to bear.