A letter from the government’s Non-Domestic Rates Team to councils has confirmed the Business Rates Relief measures for 2025/26 announced at the 2024 Autumn Budget. Here’s a summary.
Standard and small business multipliers
This confirms that:
- The non-domestic rating multiplier will be 55.5p.
- The small business non-domestic rating multiplier will be 49.9p.
Relief for retail, hospitality and leisure properties
For retail, hospitality, and leisure properties, 40% relief (capped at £110,000) is available for 2025/26 under the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief scheme. Guidance has been published setting out the eligibility criteria. Local authorities are expected to include details of the relief to eligible ratepayers in their 2025/26 rates bills.
The £110,000 cap is per business and not per property. As has been the policy in previous years, businesses who would be eligible for relief above £110,000 if there were no cap in place, should be awarded relief up to the full value of £110,000.
What about private school charities?
The Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill has passed the final stages in the House of Commons and is now working its way through the House of Lords.
The measure to remove charitable rate relief from private school charities is subject to this legislation being enacted. It is still expected that the relief will be removed from 1 April 2025. However, local authorities have been told that they should not issue bills with the relief removed until after the law’s been enacted.
Film Studios Business Rates relief
The Film Studios Business Rates relief was announced at the Budget on 6 March 2024. This gives eligible film studios in England a 40% reduction on their gross business rates bills until 2034.
Relief for eligible film studios can be backdated to 1 April 2024 and local authorities have been encouraged to quickly implement the scheme and apply the relief where applicable.
