For 2026/27 The Government have introduced three new multipliers to replace the outgoing Retail, hospital and leisure relief scheme. The new retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) multipliers have been set 5p below the relevant national multipliers for qualifying properties with rateable values below £500k, funded by a high-value multiplier 2.8p above the national standard multiplier for properties with rateable values of £500,000 and above.

The Non-Domestic Rating Multipliers for 2026/27 will be as follows:
•    Small business RHL multiplier: 38.2p
•    Small business non-domestic rating multiplier: 43.2p
•    Standard RHL multiplier: 43.0p
•    Standard non-domestic rating multiplier: 48.0p
•    High-value non-domestic rating multiplier: 50.8p
 

Further details on the multipliers and how your bill is calculated can be found on the Business rates overview page.

If the rateable value of your property increases significantly as a result of the revaluation, transitional relief limits how much your bill will increase each year to gradually phase in the changes to your bill.

For 2026, the scheme will restrict increases in bills to 5% for businesses with small properties (up to and including £20,000 rateable value); 15% for medium properties (up to and including £100,000 rateable value); and 30% for large properties (over £100,000 rateable value).

Ratepayers not in receipt of transitional relief or supporting small business rate relief will be liable for a 1p supplement to the relevant tax rate to partially fund transitional relief. This will apply for one year from 1 April 2026.

The Government has re-introduced a supporting small business relief scheme for the 2026 rating list to ease bill increases for businesses losing some or all of their small business rates relief or rural rate relief. The increase will be capped at the higher of £800 or the relevant transitional relief caps from 1 April 2026. The 2026 SSB relief scheme has been expanded to ratepayers losing their RHL relief. 

The government has also announced a one-year extension of the 2023 Supporting Small Business scheme from 1 April 2026. This support is applied before changes in other reliefs and local supplements.

The Government has introduced a ten-year 100% business rates relief for EVCPs separately assessed by the VOA and Electric Vehicle only forecourts to ensure that they face no business rates liability.

The Government has agreed to extend the Small business rates relief (SBRR) grace-period from one to three years, meaning businesses expanding into a second property from 27 November 2025 will remain eligible for SBRR on their first property for three years.

Many ratepayers will see an increase in their bills from April 2026. This is largely due to a combination of the national revaluation and the removal of reliefs created as part of the Government’s Covid response strategy. 

At a revaluation all rateable values are reassessed, to ensure that rateable values stay broadly in line with properties’ annual rental values. Milton Keynes has seen an above average increase in rateable values in the 2026 revaluation. To support businesses facing large increases, the Government has introduced two relief schemes which cap the amount by which the business rates bill on a property can increase, year on year, after the 2026 revaluation.

There are currently two multipliers for business rates in England (‘standard’ and ‘small’). Retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties, currently receive a 40% discount on business rates. In the Autumn 2025 Budget, the government announced that the discount would be removed. 

Instead, from 2026/27, there will be five multipliers in England. Two of the new multipliers are designed specifically for RHL properties. The business rates multipliers for 2026/27 will all be lower than those for 2025/26. However, they will not be 40% lower. For many businesses previously receiving the relief, the decrease in the multipliers will be outweighed by the removal of the discount and the rise in rateable values.

SSB sets percentage caps for the amount by which a property’s bill can rise in each of the three financial years between 2026 and 2029. The calculation of SSB uses a property’s business rates bill in 2025/26 as its ‘starting point’. If the property’s business rates bill in 2025/26 was reduced because of transitional relief arising from the last revaluation, that relief is disregarded (that is, the starting point would be higher than the actual bill that it paid in 2025/26).

SSB has a minimum cap of £800 a year. Thus, if the percentage calculations would limit the rise in a property’s business rates bill to, for instance, £450, a cap of £800 would apply instead.

Example: 

This ratepayer would face an increase in his rates bill of £2,707.03 (118% increase) before the award of SSB. Because the transitional relief from 2025/26 must be excluded when calculating his 2025/26 rate liability, the increase for 2026/27 after SSB is £1,802.43, rather than the £800 cap – a 78.6% increase.

The Government have confirmed that the transitional relief supplement must be shown on all of the bills, however, if you are in receipt of transitional relief or SSB, the relief you receive will be higher to cover the cost of the supplement. 

The eligibility to relief will be dependent on each business’ individual circumstances. Further details on eligibility for relief that are available are listed on our reliefs and exemptions page.

The starting point of the calculation for your bill is the property’s rateable value. A breakdown of your rateable value can be obtained via the VOA. If you think your rateable value is too high, or the valuation is incorrect you can appeal the figure, which in turn, should lower your bill. 

You do need to continue to pay whilst any appeal against your rateable value is being considered by the VOA. 

If you are unable to meet your instalments, we recommend you pay as much as you can, as regularly as you can to reduce your liability as much as possible. We will continue with the recovery process, but the lower the balance, the more we can do to support you.