Business rates rarely make front-page news, but two stories this week put them back in the spotlight: John Lewis warning that rising rates on larger stores are damaging high-street investment, and reports that Flutter (parent of Paddy Power) is weighing the closure of up to 100 betting shops, citing the combined weight of rates and energy costs. Neither story is really about small premises — but both are a useful prompt to check where your own business actually sits, because the underlying system changed more than most people noticed.
What changed in the 2026 revaluation
England and Wales went through a business rates revaluation this year, and rateable values for commercial premises rose by an average of 14.5%. To offset that, the standard multipliers used to calculate your bill went down: the small business multiplier fell to 43.2p (from 49.9p) and the standard multiplier fell to 48.0p (from 55.5p). On paper that sounds like a straightforward trade-off — higher valuation, lower rate — but the two changes don’t always cancel out evenly, which is exactly why it’s worth checking your own figures rather than assuming they roughly balance.
Two other changes matter if you’re in retail, hospitality or leisure, or in a larger premises. The old 40% retail, hospitality and leisure discount has been replaced with permanently lower multipliers specific to those use classes — 38.2p for small business RHL premises and 43.0p for standard RHL premises, both five pence below the equivalent general multiplier. And a new higher multiplier of 50.8p now applies to premises with a rateable value of £500,000 or more, which is what’s funding the RHL change and what John Lewis and similar large retailers are pushing back on.
Check your rateable value and reliefs
If your premises has a rateable value of £12,000 or less, you’re entitled to 100% small business rate relief — you pay nothing. Relief then tapers between £12,001 and £15,000: a premises valued at roughly £13,500 gets about half relief, and one valued at £14,800 gets very little. If your rateable value moved as part of this year’s revaluation, it’s worth rechecking which side of these thresholds you now sit on, since a modest increase can shift you out of full relief without any change in how you’re using the space.
Your rateable value is public and free to check on the VOA’s “Check my business rates valuation” service on GOV.UK. If it looks wrong for your premises — outdated floor area, features that no longer exist, or a comparison that doesn’t reflect your actual property — there’s a formal Check, Challenge, Appeal process to query it, and a revaluation year is generally the most sensible time to use it.
Why the big retailer stories still matter to smaller premises
The John Lewis and Flutter stories are both about large, high-value premises above the new £500,000 threshold — that’s not most small business premises. But the underlying pressure they’re describing (rates rising alongside other fixed costs like energy) applies at every scale, just with different numbers attached. If you’re on the standard or RHL multiplier rather than getting full small business relief, it’s worth treating your rates bill as a cost that moved this year, not a fixed number you can assume carried over from last year unchanged.
Limited company and sole trader perspectives
Sole trader: A sole trader running a single hair salon with a rateable value of £11,200 checked her VOA valuation after hearing about the revaluation and confirmed she still qualifies for 100% small business rate relief — the change didn’t affect her at all, but she now has written confirmation on file rather than an assumption.
Limited company: A limited company running a small chain of three cafés found one premises had moved from a rateable value of £14,200 to £16,800 in the revaluation, pushing it above the small business relief taper entirely and onto the standard RHL multiplier. The finance director used the VOA’s online valuation detail to check the comparable evidence behind the new figure before deciding whether a Check, Challenge, Appeal case was worth pursuing.
Quick checklist
- Look up your current rateable value on GOV.UK’s business rates valuation service, and check it against what you were paying before the revaluation.
- Confirm which multiplier applies to you — small business, standard, RHL-specific, or the new £500,000-plus high-value rate.
- If your rateable value moved close to the £12,000 or £15,000 relief thresholds, work out whether you’re still getting the same relief you had last year.
- If the new valuation doesn’t reflect your premises accurately, check the time limits on the Check, Challenge, Appeal process before they close.
Leave a Reply