Pub and restaurant business rates for 2026/27: the new hospitality multipliers, worked for three rateable values

"Pub business rates" and "pub business rates relief" are typed every week, and the answer changed on 1 April 2026. The retail, hospitality and leisure relief that took 40% off the bill in 2025/26 has ended, and in its place England has two permanently lower multipliers for hospitality properties under £500,000 rateable value. Whether that is better or worse depends on the building, so this guide works it for three.

The five multipliers for 2026/27

The hospitality multipliers are 5p below the equivalent general ones. Pubs, restaurants, cafés and hotels qualify where the property is wholly or mainly used to provide in-person hospitality; a dark kitchen or a head office does not. The higher 50.8p multiplier on the largest properties pays for the cut, which is why the big-box supermarkets and the city-centre hotels are paying for the village pub.

Three pubs

A village pub, rateable value £18,000. 2026/27: £18,000 × 38.2p = £6,876. Small business rate relief still applies to properties under £15,000 and tapers to £15,000, so at £18,000 there is none; the hospitality multiplier is the whole relief. 2025/26 for comparison: £18,000 × 49.9p = £8,982, less 40% = £5,389. The bill is up £1,487.

A town pub with food, rateable value £40,000. 2026/27: £40,000 × 38.2p = £15,280. 2025/26: £40,000 × 49.9p = £19,960, less 40% = £11,976. Up £3,304.

A gastropub with rooms, rateable value £80,000. 2026/27: £80,000 × 43p = £34,400. 2025/26: £80,000 × 55.5p standard = £44,400, less 40% = £26,640. Up £7,760.

The pattern is the same at every size: the 40% relief was worth more than a 5p cut in the multiplier, so every hospitality property that received the full relief last year pays more this year. The gain goes to businesses that were over the old relief's £110,000 cap, and to anyone who prefers a permanent rate to an annual announcement. For a single pub, the honest description is a rise.

The revaluation on the same day

The 2026 revaluation also took effect on 1 April 2026, resetting rateable values to April 2024 rents. For many pubs the rateable value moved as well as the multiplier, in either direction, and transitional arrangements phase in large increases. Check the new rateable value on the Valuation Office Agency's service before doing the sum above, and check the bill against it; the figures here assume the value did not change.

What to do

Check the multiplier on the bill. Billing authorities apply the RHL multiplier where the property is on their list as hospitality. A pub coded as something else pays 43.2p or 48p; the correction is a phone call and a form.

Check small business rate relief. Under £12,000 rateable value the relief is 100% and the bill is nil; between £12,000 and £15,000 it tapers. A small café or a micropub may owe nothing.

Appeal the rateable value if the rent evidence supports it. The VOA's check, challenge, appeal process is slow but free, and the trade bodies publish guidance for pubs, whose values are set on a fair maintainable trade basis rather than floor area.

Budget the rise. For the £40,000 pub it is £275 a month, which is the cost of one weekday shift at the all-in rate from the rota cost calculator. The rates bill cannot be reduced by rota; the no-show cost is where the same money usually sits unclaimed.

Figures are England only and as published for 2026/27 on the date shown; Wales and Scotland set their own multipliers and reliefs. This is general information, not tax advice.