Business Rates

Retail, Hospitality and Leisure

You could qualify for retail, hospitality and leisure relief if your business is mainly being used as a:

  • shop
  • restaurant, café, bar or pub
  • cinema or music venue
  • hospitality or leisure business - for example, a gym, a spa or a hotel

What you'll get

If eligible, you could get:

  • 50% off your business rates bills for the 2022 to 2023 tax year (1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023)
  • 75% off your business rates bills for the 2023 to 2024 tax year (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024)
  • 75% off your business rates bills for the 2024 to 2025 tax year (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025)
  • 40% off your business rates bills for the 2025 to 2026 tax year (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026)

Business rates multipliers: qualifying retail, hospitality or leisure

From 1 April 2026, the government is introducing two lower business rates multipliers for RHL properties (hereditaments) with rateable values (RVs) below £500,000:

  • Small business RHL multiplier – hereditaments with RVs under £51,000
  • Standard RHL multiplier – hereditaments with RVs between £51,000 and £499,999

The multipliers will be 5 pence below their national equivalents and represent a permanent tax cut to qualifying businesses.

Unlike the RHL business rates relief in place in 2025/26, there will be no cash cap. Therefore, all hereditaments that meet the legislative definition of qualifying RHL and that have RVs below £500,000 will be within scope of the RHL multipliers. This allows all qualifying properties in a chain to benefit from the lower multipliers.

Qualifying hereditaments: general guidelines

The definition of qualifying RHL hereditaments broadly reflects the scope of the 40% RHL relief in place in 2025/26. In the majority of cases, hereditaments receiving RHL relief will qualify for the proposed lower RHL multipliers.

However, it is important to note that some hereditaments currently in receipt of relief may be out of scope of the lower multipliers as local authorities have no discretion in the application of the legislation.

The proposed RHL multipliers will only apply to occupied hereditaments. Unoccupied hereditaments will revert to the national multipliers after Empty Property Relief ends, even if they are intended to next be used for RHL purposes.

Qualifying purposes

Only hereditaments that are ‘wholly or mainly’ used for a qualifying purpose will be eligible for the RHL multipliers.

The definition of ‘qualifying purposes’ contains a ‘retail purpose’ (retail sale or hire of goods, or the provision of a service), a ‘hospitality purpose’ (sale of food and drink, or the provision of holiday or similar temporary accommodation), and a ‘leisure purpose’ (cultural, community or recreational facilities).

The RHL multipliers are intended to help protect the high street and so benefit hereditaments used to provide in-person RHL. The definition will only be met if a hereditament is used wholly or mainly for providing RHL activity to ‘visiting members of the public’.

Excluded hereditaments

Some purposes are excluded from the RHL multipliers, for example:

  • Financial services
  • Medical and health services
  • Professional services
  • Storage and distribution of goods for online sales (i.e. warehouses)
  • Recording studios and film studios for business or professional use
  • Taxi/minicab firms
  • Show homes
  • Conference centres
  • Betting shops
  • Postal sorting offices
  • Advice bureaux
  • Job centres
  • Car parks
  • Public transport hereditaments other than bicycle docking stations