Small Businesses: Business Rates

If a property loses eligibility for Small Business Rate Relief at the 2026 Revaluation, the Supporting Small Business (SSB) scheme caps bill increases for three years at £800 per year or the relevant Transitional Relief cap.

At the Budget, the VO announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties.

In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the Government has introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills.

The Government has already started the work of reforming our business rates system by introducing new permanently lower multipliers for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new multipliers are worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit over 750,000 properties.

Around a third of properties already pay no business rates as they receive 100 per cent Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR), with an additional 85,000 benefiting from reduced bills as this relief tapers. The Government has also extended the second property grace period to support small businesses as they grow, tripling the current allowance to 3 years.

As a result, over half of ratepayers see no bill increases in 2026/27, including 23 per cent whose bills go down. This also means most properties seeing increases have them capped at 15 per cent or less in 2026/27, or £800 for the smallest.