Referral of the proposed 'Retail, hospitality and leisure business rates multipliers and & pubs and live music venues relief' subsidy scheme by HM Treasury
The Subsidy Advice Unit (SAU) has accepted a request for a report providing advice to HM Treasury (HMT) concerning its proposed 'Retail, hospitality and leisure business rates multipliers and & pubs and live music venues relief' subsidy scheme.
Administrative timetable
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| 24 March 2026 | SAU’s report to be published |
| 24 February 2026 | Deadline for receipt of any third-party submissions |
| 10 February 2026 | Beginning of reporting period |
Request from HM Treasury
10 February 2026: The SAU has accepted a request for a report from HMT concerning the proposed ‘Retail, hospitality and leisure business rates multipliers and & pubs and live music venues relief’ subsidy scheme. This request relates to a Subsidy Scheme of Particular Interest.
The SAU will prepare a report, which will provide an evaluation of HMT’s assessment of whether the subsidy scheme complies with the subsidy control requirements (Assessment of Compliance). The SAU will complete its report within 30 working days.
Information about the scheme provided by HM Treasury
The proposed scheme from HMT aims to rebalance the business rates system, supporting retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) businesses by providing them with lower business rates multipliers on qualifying RHL properties, and additional relief for pubs and live music venues, from 1 April 2026. The multiplier is the tax rate which a business pays (set as pence in the pound), which is multiplied by the rateable value of the business property to determine the gross business rate bill for the property (any relevant reliefs will then be applied). This will lower their business rates compared to what they otherwise would have been paying from April 2026.
From 1 April 2026, eligible RHL properties with rateable values under £500,000 will pay lower business rates multipliers that are 5p lower than their non-RHL national equivalents. Which properties are eligible for these new multipliers has been set out in The Non-Domestic Rating (Definition of Qualifying Retail, Hospitality or Leisure Hereditament) Regulations 2025. These new multipliers are permanent.
From 1 April 2026, pubs and live music venues will also benefit from 15% relief on their new business rates bills for the tax year 2026 to 2027, ahead of their bills being frozen in real terms in 2027 to 2028 and 2028 to 2029. This relief will be awarded to pubs and live music venues at the discretion of local authorities, who will determine eligibility using guidance published by the government based on existing definitions.
There are no maximum subsidy amounts for either policy. However, HMT has estimated the value of the scheme at £4.8 billion. This comprises the:
- total value of the RHL multipliers over the 5-year scorecard (around £4.4 billion)
- expected cost of the pubs and live music venues relief over the next 3 years (around £400 million)
The pubs and live music venues relief will be scored at the Spring Statement in the usual way. As such, it has not yet been certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility and is therefore subject to change.
In practice, HMT has explained that the RHL multipliers are largely funded by the new high-value multiplier that the government is also introducing on properties with rateable values of £500,000 and above, so the cost and revenue of the multipliers broadly balance out. HMT has explained that the around £4.4 billion cost is therefore how much the RHL multipliers are worth over the scorecard, rather than how much they are costing the Exchequer.
Information for third parties
If you wish to comment on matters relevant to the SAU’s evaluation of the Assessment of Compliance concerning the proposed ‘Retail, hospitality and leisure business rates multipliers and & pubs and live music venues relief’ subsidy scheme, please send your comments on the date stipulated in the timetable above. For guidance on representations relevant to the Assessment of Compliance, see the section on reporting period and transparency in the Operation of the subsidy control functions of the Subsidy Advice Unit.
Please send your submissions to us at sau-hmtbusinessrates2026@cma.gov.uk, copying the public authority: transformingbusinessrates@hmtreasury.gov.uk
Please also provide a contact address and explain in what capacity you are making the submission (for example, as an individual or a representative of a business or organisation).
Notes to third parties wishing to make a submission
The SAU will only take your submission into account if it can be shared with HMT. The SAU will send a copy of your submission to HMT together with its report. This is to allow the public authority to take account of the submission in its decision as to whether to grant or modify the subsidy scheme or its assessment. We therefore ask that you provide express consent for your full and unredacted submission to be shared. We also encourage you to share your submission directly with HMT using the email address provided above.
The SAU may use the information you provide in its published report. Therefore, you should indicate in your submission whether any specified parts of it are commercially confidential. If the SAU wishes to refer in its published report to material identified as confidential, it will contact you in advance.
For further details on confidentiality of third-party submissions, see identifying confidential information in the Operation of the subsidy control functions of the Subsidy Advice Unit.
Contacts
- SAU project team: sau-hmtbusinessrates2026@cma.gov.uk
- CMA press team: 020 3738 6460 or press@cma.gov.uk