The government has announced that all pubs and live music venues will benefit from a 15% business rates relief on top of the support announced at Budget 2025.
This relief will apply on top of any transitional relief or supporting small business relief businesses are eligible for. Their business rates bill will then be frozen in real terms in 2027-28 and 2028-29, meaning it will only go up by inflation in those years.
Earlier today, chancellor Rachel Reeves, told Parliament: “We are determined to support pubs, which are the lifeblood of our communities.”
Relief will be awarded to pubs that meet all of the following characteristics:
- are open to the general public
- allow free entry other than when occasional entertainment is provided
- allow drinking without requiring food to be consumed, and
- permit drinks to be purchased at a bar.
For these purposes, the meaning of pub does not include: restaurants, cafes, nightclubs, snack bars, hotels, guest houses, boarding houses, sporting venues, festival sites, theatres, concert halls, cinemas, museums, exhibition halls, and casinos.
The proposed exclusions above is not intended to be exhaustive, and it will be for local authorities to determine those cases where eligibility is unclear, said a government spokesperson. “Local authorities will already have a good understanding of the pubs in their areas and will be able to readily form a view on eligibility in the majority of cases.
“Where eligibility is unclear, local authorities should also consider broader factors in their considerations — ie, in meeting the stated intent of policy that it demonstrates the characteristics that would lead it to be classified as a pub by the natural meaning of the word. For example, being owned and operated by a brewery.”
Live music venues are designated as properties that are wholly or mainly used for the performance of live music for the purpose of entertaining an audience. It can be used for other activities, but only if those activities are ancillary or incidental to the performance of live music (eg the sale of food or drink to audience members) and do not affect the primary use of the premises for the performance of live music (eg because the activities are infrequent, such as use of the venue as a polling station or fortnightly community event).
