Hospitality Industry: Business Rates
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of reducing business rates for hospitality venues on high street regeneration.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson
The Government is creating a fairer business rates system that protects the high street, supports investment, and is fit for the 21st century.
As set out at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government will introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with ratable values (RVs) below £500,000 from 2026-27. This permanent tax cut will ensure they benefit from much-needed certainty and support.
Ahead of these changes being made, the Government recognises that businesses will need support in 2025/26. As such, the Government has prevented the current RHL relief from ending in April 2025, 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.
The final design, including the rates, for the new business rates multipliers will be announced at Budget 2025, so that the Government can factor the revaluation outcomes, as well as the broader economic and fiscal context into decision-making. When the new multipliers are set, HM Treasury intends to publish analysis of the effects of the new multiplier arrangements.
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