Business Rates Relief for Pubs and Live Music Venues - 2026/27
The government has announced a new business rates relief for occupied pubs and live music venues. This relief will be applied as part of the annual billing process for the 2026/27 financial year, alongside other mandatory updates such as the revised business rates multipliers and the latest revaluation.
Eligibility - pubs
To qualify, a property must meet all of the following characteristics:
- be open to the general public
- have free entry (except when occasional entertainment is provided)
- drinking is allowed without food being required
- drinks can be purchased at a bar
The following are not counted as pubs for the purpose of this relief:
- restaurants, cafés, nightclubs, snack bars, hotels, guesthouses, boarding houses, sporting venues, festival sites, theatres, cinemas, museums, exhibition halls and casinos.
Local authorities may use discretion where eligibility is unclear, considering whether the premises meet the natural meaning of a pub.
Eligibility - live music venues
To qualify, a property must be:
- wholly or mainly used for live music performance for an audience
Other uses must be incidental/ancillary (e.g., food or drink for the audience) or infrequent (e.g., polling station or occasional community events)
Properties mainly used as nightclubs or theatres do not qualify.
Where needed, further clarification can be drawn from Chapter 16 of the statutory guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003.
What happens next
You do not need to apply for this relief.
We will assess eligibility and apply the relief automatically when issuing annual business rates bills for 2026/27, factoring it in alongside all other national business rates changes.