Since the Autumn Budget, business rates have featured heavily in the news, with further recent announcements including the Welsh and Scottish Budgets and ongoing debate regarding the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. This has resulted in additional reliefs for pubs and live music venues across the UK.
Draft 2026 rateable values have been published for England, Wales and Scotland alongside the surprise announcement from Northern Ireland that they will be delaying their revaluation and maintaining their 2023 Rating List values for the 2026/27 rate year.
In this update, we summarise the latest announcements and review the consultations currently underway.
New multipliers confirmed across the UK
From 1 April 2026:
- England will introduce five separate multipliers with different criteria
- Wales and Scotland will adopt three multipliers each
- All administrations will implement individual transitional schemes and reliefs, increasing the complexity of rate demands
In our Autumn Budget update, we highlighted the Government in England’s confirmation that discounted retail hospitality and leisure (RHL) multipliers for qualifying occupied properties with a rateable value below £500,000 will be set at 5p below the standard and small multipliers. Additional multipliers for properties with a rateable value of £500,000 or more will be set at 2.8p above the standard multiplier.
The Welsh Government subsequently introduced its own additional multipliers, using different criteria from England:
- A lower retail multiplier will apply to qualifying retail properties (shops and kiosks) with RV £51,000 and below
- A higher multiplier will apply for properties with a rateable value above £100,000, subject to limited exceptions
The full range of multipliers in England, Scotland and Wales are as follows for the 2026/27 rate year:
Note that in England, a 1p supplement will apply to the above multipliers for one year for properties which do not benefit from the transitional relief scheme or the supporting small business scheme.
Although the Scottish Government chose not to introduce specific multipliers for retail hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties, it did announce a new RHL relief scheme. This will provide a 15% discount for qualifying businesses from 2026, capped at £110,000 per business per annum (see our Scottish Budget Update for more information).
In England, properties that are losing their RHL relief (currently a 40% discount capped at up to £110,000 per business) will benefit from the Supporting Small Business Relief scheme. This will cap increases in liability between 2025/26 and 2026/27 at the higher of £800 or the relevant transitional increase. This relief will also apply to any ratepayer losing some or all of their small business rates relief due to an increase in their rateable value from 1 April 2026.
In Scotland, the Small Business Bonus Scheme will continue to apply.
Transitional relief schemes from England, Scotland and Wales have now all been confirmed and follow similar approaches to the schemes introduced in 2023. However, the value ranges applied to the different levels within the transitional schemes differ to those announced for the multipliers, adding further complexity for ratepayers.
Our rating data card includes the new multipliers and details of the reliefs available across the different administrations together with details of the Business Rates supplement (Cross Rail) of 2p payable for properties in Greater London with a rateable value of £92,000 or more. It also includes The City of London supplements which will be increasing from 2p to 2.9p (for properties with an RV below £51,000) and from 2.2p to 3.2p (for properties with an RV of £51,000 and above).
Pubs and live music venues
Following the Budget announcements, the hospitality industry, and particularly pub operators, raised significant concern. Many had anticipated a reduction in their business rates liabilities from 2026. Although the Chancellor confirmed a fall in the multipliers, a considerable number of pub occupiers found that their draft 2026 rateable values were substantially higher than their current ones, resulting in an increase in rates payable from 2026.
In response, the Chancellor announced an additional relief scheme for England at the end of January, restricted to pubs and live music venues. Guidance on qualification criteria has now been issued and the scheme provides an additional 15% discount from net 2026/27 rate liabilities, which they advised will be fixed “in real terms” through to 2026/27 and 2028/29. The Government has confirmed that this relief will not be capped and will not be subject to subsidy control measures.
The Welsh Government announced its own additional scheme for food and drink hospitality premises, also set at 15% but capped at £110,000 per business.
In Scotland, an additional 25% relief has been announced for eligible licenced hospitality and music venues as an extension to the RHL scheme announced in the budget but also capped at a total of £110,000 per business. As a result, qualifying properties in Scotland could benefit from 40% relief.
The Northern Ireland Assembly has taken a more drastic step by pausing the 2026 Revaluation. This announcement came only days after the publication of the draft 2026 Rateable Values, which resulted in a similar reaction from the leisure and hospitality sectors. Our understanding is that rate demands for 2026/27 will be calculated using the current 2023 Rateable Values, with further clarification awaited for future years.
More consultations
Alongside the Budget, the government published its Business Rates and Investment Call for Evidence, which closed at the end of January 2026. This represents the next stage of the reform agenda following on from the Transforming Business Rates
discussion paper issued in 2024 and includes questions on the impact of the receipts and expenditure method of valuation for sectors where rental evidence is limited.
We understand that the Government will be organising a series of round table discussions to further explore the responses. Please let us know if you receive a direct invite to participate.
Further consultations will also follow on:
- Valuation methodology for pubs
- Valuation methodology for hotels
- In Scotland, a call for evidence on licensed property valuation methodology has been issued as part of the independent review chaired by B J Gill KC
We will issue further updates once the consultations for England have been published.
Anti-avoidance measures in Wales from 1 April 2026
The Welsh Government is introducing a new general anti‑avoidance framework aimed at stopping artificial arrangements designed to reduce or avoid business rates. The Regulations set out four categories of artificial avoidance, which capture many existing empty‑rates mitigation strategies:
- Occupation not on a commercial basis
- Voluntary winding-up of ratepayers
- Ratepayer characteristics/behaviours undermining the system
- Occupation with minimal or artificial characteristics
Local Authorities will be empowered to identify and challenge any “mitigation” schemes they believe fall within these areas. While the previous UK Government considered similar General Anti‑Avoidance Rules (GAAR) for England, these have not progressed.
The Welsh measures are intended to strengthen Local Authority enforcement, though their effectiveness remains to be seen. Empty rates were also addressed in the recent Call for Evidence, where we reiterated our recommendation for a more supportive approach: a 12‑month rates‑free period followed by a 50% liability. This would replace the current 3‑month (or 6‑month for qualifying industrial properties) exemption before full rates apply—an approach we believe discourages investment and drives ratepayers toward mitigation strategies.
Rate demands for 2026/27
Local Authorities are now preparing rate demands for 2026/27. Given the volume of changes announced in recent months, we anticipate a higher level of inaccuracies than in previous cycles and are ready to challenge any discrepancies. We are aware that some councils are considering postponing their billing processes, choosing to delay April direct debits and spread collections over 11 instead of 12 instalments. Meanwhile, others are issuing initial bills that include notices clarifying that the latest reliefs are not yet incorporated, allowing time for all recent changes to be properly reflected.
Where we provide rate payment management services (RPMS), we will keep you updated as part of our reporting process. We encourage all clients to share copies of their rate demands with us as soon as they are received.
We will continue to monitor developments and provide updates on any further changes as we approach April 2026. In the meantime, our team is here to answer any of your questions.
