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Will your business rates go up in April 2027?

The 28 October 2026 Budget changed what independent hospitality pays from April 2027. Find your property to see your bill for the next two years, before and after the Budget. England only.

1. Find your property

You will need your rateable values, or your bill.

This is an estimate, not a bill. It covers occupied properties in England with a rateable value under £500,000, and your council's bill is the final word. The 2026/27 figure rebuilt from your rateable values assumes you had the 40% retail, hospitality and leisure relief in 2025/26 and were not on Supporting Small Business before April 2026, so check it against your bill. 2028/29 uses estimated multipliers (2027/28 plus 3.5% inflation).

It does not cover charities and community amateur sports clubs, empty properties, improvement or hardship relief, or appeals. Nor does it cover vape shops or adult gaming centres, which lose the retail, hospitality and leisure multipliers from April 2027 and do not get the bigger small business rate relief. It leaves out the Greater London Authority's Business Rate Supplement and the City of London's own multipliers. Rules as at 28 October 2026. Brikly is not part of the Valuation Office Agency, HMRC or any council.

Your rates bill is easier to plan now. Your supplier prices are not.

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What the 28 October 2026 Budget changed

For independent hospitality, the Budget's biggest change is not the headline small business rate relief. It is a real-terms freeze for retail, hospitality and leisure properties whose bill is capped by transitional relief or Supporting Small Business relief, which covers most cafés, restaurants, pubs and shops whose rateable value rose in April 2026.

  • The freeze: in 2027/28 and 2028/29 those bills can rise by inflation only, instead of up to 25% plus inflation and then up to 40% plus inflation.
  • No £800 minimum: Supporting Small Business bills for retail, hospitality and leisure no longer have to rise by at least £800 a year.
  • Bigger small business rate relief: 100% up to a rateable value of £18,000, tapering to nothing at £21,000, up from £12,000 and £15,000. A business with other small properties keeps it while their total rateable value stays at or below £29,999, for every kind of property.
  • More time for the 2023 relief: properties already on the 2023 version of Supporting Small Business before April 2026 keep the relief to 31 March 2028, a year longer.
  • The 1p supplement stays: properties on neither scheme keep paying the 1p transitional supplement to March 2029. Before the Budget it was due to stop in March 2027.

A worked example

Brikly's founder runs Hunters Cake Company in Oxfordshire: two cafés and a production bakery. The Burford café's rateable value went from £23,500 to £32,000 in the April 2026 revaluation. It lost the 40% retail, hospitality and leisure relief in April 2026, so Supporting Small Business caps its bill: £8,091.29 for 2026/27, to the penny what the council billed. Before the Budget, its 2027/28 bill would have been about £10,460. After it, about £8,370. Over the two years to March 2029 it pays about £6,650 less.

The same maths applies to restaurants, bakeries, takeaways and shops. Put your postcode in above to see yours.

Who gains least

Properties paying the full bill, on neither transitional relief nor Supporting Small Business, get no freeze, and the Budget keeps the 1p supplement on them for two more years, so they pay a little more: in 2027/28, on a rateable value under £51,000, 39.7p plus 1p in the pound, instead of 39.7p.

Pubs gain less than cafés and restaurants: they were told in January 2026 that their bills would be frozen in real terms, and pubs relief was already due to rise to 35%. Small pubs on Supporting Small Business still gain, as the Budget ends the £800 minimum rise for them. Offices, production units and warehouses are not retail, hospitality or leisure, so the freeze and the new relief thresholds do not apply to them. A production bakery or central kitchen is usually rated as industrial, so it misses out too.

Frequently asked questions

Who gets the business rates freeze from April 2027?

Retail, hospitality and leisure properties in England whose bill is capped by transitional relief or Supporting Small Business relief. That covers most independent cafés, restaurants, pubs and shops whose rateable value went up in the April 2026 revaluation. In 2027/28 and 2028/29 their bills can rise by inflation only. Before the 28 October 2026 Budget, the caps allowed rises of up to 25% plus inflation in 2027/28 and up to 40% plus inflation in 2028/29. Pubs were told in January 2026 that their bills would be frozen in real terms from April 2027, so we show that freeze before the Budget too. A property paying the full bill, on neither scheme, gets no freeze, and nor does a property that is empty on 1 April, for that year.

What is the £18,000 small business rate relief, and who misses out?

From 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2029, retail, hospitality and leisure properties get 100% small business rate relief up to a rateable value of £18,000, tapering to nothing at £21,000. The government will review these limits at the 2029 revaluation. Before the Budget they were £12,000 and £15,000, and they still are for other properties. You get it if this is your one business property, or if every other one is under £2,900 and the total stays at or below £29,999, a limit that now applies to every kind of property in England until March 2029. A second site at £2,900 or more rules you out, though you keep the relief on the first property for a grace period: 12 months for a second site taken on before 27 November 2025, or three years for one taken on from that day. Above £21,000 it does not help at all, and the freeze is what matters. Vape shops and adult gaming centres miss out too: from April 2027 they no longer count as retail, hospitality or leisure, vape shops lose small business rate relief altogether, and this calculator does not cover them.

I'm on Supporting Small Business relief. What happens now?

Supporting Small Business relief caps your bill after the April 2026 revaluation, starting from what you paid on 31 March 2026. Before the Budget, each year the bill could rise by a set percentage plus inflation (up to 25% plus inflation in 2027/28), or by £800 if that was more. After the Budget, for retail, hospitality and leisure properties, it can rise by inflation only in 2027/28 and 2028/29, with no £800 minimum. If you were already on the 2023 version of the relief before April 2026, it now runs to 31 March 2028 instead of 31 March 2027. Once the capped bill reaches your full bill, the relief ends for good and you pay the full bill.

How does the Budget affect pubs and live music venues?

Less than it affects cafés and restaurants. Pubs were told in January 2026 that their bills would be frozen in real terms from April 2027, and in July 2026 that pubs relief would rise from 15% in 2026/27 to 35% in 2027/28 and 2028/29, so we show both before the Budget too. The Budget adds the bigger small business rate relief (100% up to £18,000), no £800 minimum rise for pubs on Supporting Small Business (the January letter did not cover it), an extra year for pubs already on the 2023 version of Supporting Small Business, and, for pubs paying the full bill, the 1p supplement for two more years. Live music venues get the same relief and freeze. Choose Pub or live music venue as your property type and the calculator applies the relief.

When do the new bills arrive, and what happens in April 2029?

Councils usually send the 2027/28 bills in March 2027, for the year from 1 April 2027. The 2027/28 multipliers are confirmed. The 2028/29 figures here are estimates, because those multipliers are set in late 2027: we assume 3.5% inflation. The freeze, transitional relief and Supporting Small Business all run to 31 March 2029, and so do the bigger small business rate relief and the 35% pubs relief, which are due for review at the next revaluation. On 1 April 2029 that revaluation brings new rateable values, so if your 2028/29 bill is well below the full bill without those reliefs, plan for a jump. The calculator warns you when the gap is 10% or more.

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