Business Rates

The Autumn Budget provided some information about updates and new measures for 2027/28. It is expected to be the new year before we have the full details, but the headlines are:

• Increase in Small Business Rates Relief thresholds for qualifying Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) properties to £18,000 (full relief) and £21,000 (tapered relief). These thresholds will be reviewed at the 2029 revaluation.
• Extra 20% relief for pubs, social clubs and all but the largest live music venues. This is in addition to the support introduced earlier in 2026, bringing the total relief to 35%. This support will be provided in 2027/28 and 2028/29.
• Real-terms RHL, Pubs and Live Music Venue Bill freeze for 2 years until 31 March 2029. Eligible properties will have their business rates bills capped by CPI inflation in the 2027/28 and 2028/29. This does not apply to increases in rateable values resulting from improvements, or losses in other reliefs such as improvement relief or hardship relief post 1 April 2026.
• An extension of the 2026 Supporting Small Business (SSB) scheme to those who were in receipt of 2023 Supporting Small Business relief for a further year.

You can read more at: Details of the Budget package and the multipliers for 2027/2028 - GOV.UK.

We expect to be able to apply the changes to bills automatically, but there may be instances where we need to contact ratepayers for additional information to enable us to calculate bills accurately.