Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the marginal increase in business rates liability for a retail, hospitality and leisure hereditament moving from £500,000 to £501,000 Rateable Value under the new 2026-27 business rate system.

In order to sustainably fund the permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties with rateable values (RVs) below £500,000, the Government is introducing a higher tax rate for properties with RVs of £500,000 and above.

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

While RVs have increased, the tax rates have decreased, so that all ratepayers, including those on the new high-value multiplier, will pay a lower tax rate than they do now. The Government appreciates that a lower tax rate does not necessarily mean a lower bill for everyone, which is why the Government has introduced a generous support package worth £4.3 billion over the next 3 years to help ratepayers to transition to their new bills.

As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down.

The ‘Business Rates and Investment: Call for Evidence’, published at Budget, builds on the findings of the Transforming Business Rates: Discussion Paper and asks stakeholders for more detailed evidence on how the business rates system influences investment decisions, including the impact of a ‘slab’ based structure where a higher multiplier applies to the entire RV once a threshold is crossed. The government believes there may be merit in moving to a ‘slice’ system for business rates, where the RV is split into slices (or brackets, bands) and each portion is taxed at its own, different rate.