Category: Press Releases

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 27 January 2026.

In 2026-27, all pubs and live music venues will benefit from a 15% business rates relief on top of the support announced at Budget 2025. Their bills will then be frozen in real terms for a further two years.

Eligibility

Pubs

Relief will be awarded to pubs that meet all of the following characteristics:

a. is open to the general public, 

b. allows free entry other than when occasional entertainment is provided, 

c. allows drinking without requiring food to be consumed, and 

d. permits drinks to be purchased at a bar.

For these purposes, the meaning of pub does not include:

a. Restaurants, cafes, nightclubs, snack bars, 

b. Hotels, guesthouses, boarding houses, 

c. sporting venues,  

d. festival sites, theatres, concert halls, cinemas, 

e. museums, exhibition halls, and 

f. casinos

The proposed exclusions in the list in the paragraph above is not intended to be exhaustive and it will be for Local Authorities to determine those cases where eligibility is unclear. Local Authorities will already have a good understanding of the pubs in their areas and will be able to readily form a view on eligibility in the majority of cases.

Where eligibility is unclear, Local Authorities should also consider broader factors in their considerations – i.e., in meeting the stated intent of policy that it demonstrates the characteristics that would lead it to be classified as a pub by the natural meaning of the word. For example, being owned and operated by a brewery.

Live music venues

Live music venues are properties that are:

a. wholly or mainly used for the performance of live music for the purpose of entertaining an audience. 

b. Can be used for other activities but only if those other activities are:

i. ancillary or incidental to the performance of live music (e.g. the sale of food or drink to audience members).  

ii. Do not affect the primary use of the premises for the performance of live music (e.g. because the activities are infrequent such as use of the venue as a polling station or fortnightly community event).

Properties are not a live music venue for the purpose of this relief if the property is wholly or mainly used as a nightclub or a theatre, for the purposes of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended).

There may be circumstances where it is difficult to tell whether an activity is a performance of live music or, instead, the playing of recorded music. Although we would expect this to be clear in most circumstances, guidance on this may be found in Chapter 16 of the statutory guidance issued in April 2018 under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003.

What you’ll get

If you are a pub or live music venue that meets one of the above definitions, you will benefit from 15% business rates relief in 2026-27. This relief will apply on top of any Transitional Relief or Supporting Small Business Relief you are eligible for.

Your business rates bill will then be frozen in real terms in 2027-28 and 2028-29, meaning it will only go up by inflation in those years.  

To get an estimate of what your business rates bill will be next year, including this relief, click here.

Example

You are an independent pub with a rateable value going from £30,000 to £39,000 in April 2026. You are claiming 40% retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) relief in 2025-26.

In 2025-26, before RHL relief, the pub’s business rates bill is £14,970 (£30,000 x 49.9p). The RHL relief would be worth 40% x £14,970 = £5,988, meaning the final 2025-26 bill is £14,970 – £5,988 = £8,982.

In 2026-27, due to the 2026 revaluation, the rateable value of the pub has increased from £30,000 to £39,000. The pub is eligible for the new small business RHL multiplier of 38.2p in 2026-27, so before any reliefs, the pub’s bill would be £39,000 x 38.2p = £14,898.

To help smooth the transition to the permanently lower RHL multipliers, the government is providing relief through the Supporting Small Business scheme for properties losing their RHL relief in 2026-27. This means that the pub’s bill increase in 2026-27 compared to 2025-26 is capped at the higher of £800 or the relevant Transitional Relief cap (in this case, 15%).

15% of the 2025-26 bill of £8,982 would be £1,347, which is higher than the £800 cap. So, in this case, the 15% cap applies: £8,982 + £1,347 = £10,329.

A 15% relief is then applied to the £10,329: £10,329 x 15% = £1,549. £10,329 – £1,549 = £8,780 final bill in 2026-27.

In 2027-28, the pub’s £8,780 bill will only go up by inflation. Assuming the September 2026 CPI figure is 2%, the bill would go up to £8,956 (£8,780 x 1.02).

Assuming the September 2027 CPI figure is 2%, the bill would go up to £9,135 (£8,956 x 1.02).

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 27 January 2026.

The Chancellor is backing British pubs with a major support package, as the government recognises the challenges facing the industry and the vital role they play in building strong local communities.

• Government backs British pubs with a major package of support on business rates and licensing reform, recognising the challenges they face and important role they play in local communities.
• Pubs will get a 15% cut to new business rates bills from April followed by a two-year real-terms freeze, as well as a review into the method used to value them for business rates. This is on top of support announced at Budget.
• Government also announces a new High Street Strategy to help ensure retail, leisure and hospitality businesses can thrive, as the bedrock of strong communities.

The Chancellor is backing British pubs with the announcement of a major support package, as the government recognises the challenges facing the industry and the vital role they play in building strong local communities.

Pubs have faced significant pressure as their numbers have fallen by nearly 7,000 since 2010, a roughly 15% reduction and amongst the highest across hospitality overall. The sector has also raised concerns around the way they are valued for business rates purposes.

Recognising the value they bring and the challenges they face, the government is introducing a support package to save the average pub an additional £1,650 in 2026/27. Around 75% of pubs will see their bills fall or stay flat over the same year with the pub sector as a whole paying 8% less in business rates in 2029 than they do currently.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said:

If we’re going to restore the pride in our communities, we need our pubs and our high streets to thrive. We’re backing British pubs with additional support, and our new High Streets Strategy will help tackle the long-term challenges that our much-loved retail, leisure and hospitality businesses have faced. Thriving local businesses, bustling high streets and pride restored in our communities – that’s what this government is delivering.

Other sectors continue to benefit from the £4.3 billion support package and from permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties.

The government is also launching a review into how they are valued. The review will be carried out by the government alongside businesses and their representatives as well as valuation experts, ensuring that any decisions that follow will be implemented for the 2029 revaluation.

Over the last decade, changing consumer habits, increasingly working from home and shopping online, combined with the pandemic and the increase in energy costs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have had a significant impact on all high street business.

Recognising this, the government is also announcing a High Streets Strategy to reinvigorate Britain’s communities. Working alongside businesses and representatives, this cross-government strategy will be published later this year and will look at what more the government can do to support our high streets.

This government is committed to supporting pubs build sustainable business models over the long-term. In the spring, the government will consult on further loosening planning rules to benefit pubs, helping them add new guest rooms or expand their main room without local planning applications. We will continue to engage with the sector to ensure other retail, leisure, and hospitality premises also have sufficient planning flexibilities.

The Chancellor also announced today £10 million of funding for the Hospitality Support Fund over three years – upped from £1.5 million for one year announced last April – to support pubs across the UK. The additional funding aims to help over 1,000 pubs provide extra services for local communities, including creating community cafes, village stores and play areas to help pubs bring locals and families together and boost their footfall. It will also support people who are furthest from the labour market to move into jobs in hospitality.       

As part of further licencing reforms, pubs and other licensed venues will be able to open after midnight for Home Nations’ games in the later stages of this summer’s Men’s FIFA World Cup, meaning more time for fans at the pub while boosting takings behind the bar and supporting jobs in hospitality. The government is also bringing forward a consultation to allow them to open late for other big events such as Eurovision.

The government will legislate later this year to increase the number of temporary events pubs and other hospitality venues can hold to help screen other World Cup games or host community and cultural events. 

This support comes on top of the £4.3 billion package the Chancellor announced at Budget 2025. This includes capping business rate bill rises by 15% for most businesses from April, or £800 for the smallest, next year as pandemic-era reliefs end and new revaluations take effect.

This government is committed to reforming the business rates system and has already begun the work. At Budget 2025, the Chancellor announced a permanent 5p cut in the business rates multiplier for over 750,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties, funded by a higher tax rate for the most expensive 1% of properties.

Further information

• As many grassroots live music venues serve as pubs and vice versa, while also playing a vital role restoring pride in local communities, they will also be included in the support package. This means their new business rates bills will be cut by 15% from April and frozen in real-terms for the following two years.
• The government is also reviewing how hotels are valued for business rates following concerns expressed.  Hotels valuations are undertaken in a different way to some other sectors. The methodology used is well established, but, as with pubs, specific concerns have been raised by stakeholders and it is right to review how hotels are valued to ensure it accurately reflects the market for these sectors.
• Pubs’ business rates valuations are, like most other sectors, based on analysis of rents in the open market.
• But how these rents are analysed is different to some other sectors. While most shops, cafes and restaurants are valued by comparing the size of the property, pubs are valued by comparing their turnover potential.
• Industry bodies have highlighted concerns with how costs are accounted for in this methodology– particularly during periods of high inflation —and the government wants to assess this more closely.
• The World Cup extension will allow pubs in England and Wales to stay open late, without applying for a Temporary Event Notice, for home nation games:
  • Until 1am for any quarter final, semi-final or the final if the match starts at or before 9pm,
  • Until 2am for any quarter final if the match starts at 10pm,
• Matches that begin after 10pm BST which will be out of scope for this policy.
• Premises will therefore still have to apply for a Temporary Events Notice for any other games where they want to open late but we are exploring options to extend opening hours for other Home Nation games too.
• Business rates is devolved, so this new relief applies to England only. However, it will generate Barnett consequentials, giving the Devolved Administrations additional funding to allocate according to their priorities. It’s for the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive to decide whether to match this support for pubs and music venues.