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Business Rates: Tax Allowances

Asked by Paul HolmesConservativeTreasuryTabled Answered 27 November 2024UIN 15242

The question

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the additional revenue generated following the reduction of business rate relief from 75% to 40% for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in the 2025-26 financial year.

Answered by James Murray

Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) relief is a single year policy intervention. As such, the baseline scorecard assumption for 2025-26 was for RHL relief to not be extended.

At Autumn Budget, the Government announced that from 2026-27, it intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for RHL properties, including those on the high street. To support this transition, the Government has prevented RHL relief from ending in April 2025 by extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business, and frozen the small business multiplier. This package is worth more than £1.6 billion in 2025-26.

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