Business rates cuts for leisure businesses
Owners of public houses have faced significantly higher bills for business rates from April 2026. To partly offset the increases, the government announced a 15% discount for the current year and has recently announced a 20% discount for 2027/28.
The higher business rates costs have been generated as a result of a business rates revaluation and the removal of Covid-era relief.
Who qualifies?
For 2025/26, retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England qualified for a 40% discount on their business rates:
- The 15% and 20% discounts are more restrictive, only applying for public houses, clubs and live music venues. The discounts are applied on top of any other available reliefs.
- Not surprisingly, owners of restaurants, cafés and hotels are disappointed about their exclusion from the latest discounts.
- Larger live music venues will not qualify for the 20% discount, with further details expected to be outlined in the Autumn Budget.
Almost 32,000 public houses, clubs and live music venues are likely to benefit from the 15% and 20% discounts, with the typical public house expected to save £1,100 in 2027/28.
For 2026/27, Scotland has given a 15% discount for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, and Wales provides a similar discount for food and drink hospitality businesses.
Support for small businesses
For premises in England, 100% relief applies where the rateable value is less than £12,000, with tapered relief for properties valued up to £15,000.
Most English properties which have lost the retail, hospitality and leisure discount qualify for the Supporting Small Business Relief (SSBR) scheme. The calculations can be complicated, but, for example, the business rates rise for 2026/27 for a property with a rateable value between £20,001 (£28,001 in London) and £100,000 is capped at the higher of £800 and 15%. Caps also apply for 2027/28 and 2028/29.
However, for public houses, clubs and live music venues, their business rates bill will only increase by inflation for 2027/28 and 2028/29, with the newly announced 20% discount in addition to this cap.
Details of the 15% discount for 2026/27 can be found here.
