Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether Transitional Relief for pubs only applies to the portion of increase directly attributable to Rateable Value change after the effect of new multipliers.

The Government is introducing permanently lower business rates multipliers for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £900 million per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties. To sustainably fund these lower RHL multipliers, the Government is also introducing a higher rate on the top one per cent of most expensive properties.

To protect businesses from large bill increases at the 2026 revaluation the government has introduced a generous support package worth £4.3 billion over the next 3 years, including support to help ratepayers to transition to their new bill.

For properties losing their RHL relief, the caps apply to their current bill, including the 40% relief, before changes in other reliefs and local supplements.

This means that most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.

Without this support, the pub sector as a whole would have faced a 45% increase in the total bills they pay next year. Because of the support the Government has put in place this falls to just 4%.