The Chairman of the House of Commons Business and Enterprise Committee, Peter Luff MP, is today proposing a Private Members' Bill which calls for automatic rate relief for small businesses, rather than making them making jump through bureaucratic hoops. (They already do it in Wales apparently.)
It's a very sensible idea, which he's written an article about. He has just sat down after talking about the proposal in the House of Commons...we'll blog later on the outcome.
UPDATE: The Govt is not going to support the Bill, meaning that it unlikely to go anywhere. They have said that the proposal is full of good intent, but they will look into doing something in this area as part of a wider package on business rates in the Budget. Peter Luff has taken them at their word and withdrawn the Bill. We'll update you on whether they do anything in the Budget on 22 April.