Retail Trade: Business Rates
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the British Retail Consortium press notice entitled 400 of Britain’s largest shops at risk, published on 12 September 2025.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson
From April 2026, the Government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties with rateable values below £500,000. This permanent tax cut will ensure that eligible RHL properties benefit from much-needed certainty and support.
This tax cut must be sustainably funded, and so the Government is introducing a higher rate on the most valuable properties in 2026/27 - those with RVs of £500,000 and above. The Government recognises that, ahead of the new multipliers being introduced, RHL businesses need support in 2025-26. So, the Government has prevented RHL relief from ending by extending it for one year at 40 per centup 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 revaluation outcomes and broader economic and fiscal context can be factored 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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