Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she has make an assessment of the potential impact of reforming business rates on small pubs and breweries.

In April 2026, the Government will introduce permanently lower business rates multipliers for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with rateable values below £500,000. This permanent tax cut will ensure that eligible properties, including pubs, benefit from much-needed certainty and support. Breweries that are wholly or mainly open to visiting members of the public (for instance, mainly used as a bar or for providing tours to the public) will also benefit from the lower multipliers.

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.

Ahead of the new multipliers being introduced, the Government prevented RHL business rates 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. Under the previous Government, RHL relief was due to end entirely in April 2025, and so by extending it, the Government has saved the average pub, with a ratable value of £16,800, over £3,300.