Leisure: Business Rates
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support grassroots (a) sports clubs and (b) community organisations will receive to help manage any additional costs they will face as a result of the introduction of new RHL multipliers for properties with a rateable value under £500,000 in April 2026.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson
The existing business rates retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) relief has been repeatedly extended year-on-year as a temporary stopgap measure. We recognise that this creates cliff-edges and uncertainty for businesses, as well as significant fiscal pressure.
Therefore, from April 2026, we are introducing permanently lower business rates multipliers for qualifying RHL properties with rateable values below £500,000. The Government recognises the importance of grassroots sports clubs and recreation and community organisations, with this permanent tax cut ensuring they and other RHL businesses benefit from much-needed certainty and support.
To fund these lower RHL multipliers sustainably, from April 2026, we are also introducing a higher multiplier on properties with RVs of £500,000 and above. The rates for the new multipliers will be set at Budget 2025 so that we can take into account the revaluation outcomes, as well as the economic and fiscal context. When the new multipliers are set, HM Treasury intends to publish analysis on the effects of the new multiplier arrangements.
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