Chancellor raises business rates cut for music venues to 35%
Pubs, clubs and music venues in the UK will see their business rates cut by 35%, Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey announced in the Budget statement on 28 October. The figure is up from the 20% cut first set out earlier this year.
Business rates are a local tax on the buildings that shops, pubs and venues use. The bill is based on a property's "rateable value", an official estimate of what the building could rent for. A cut lowers that bill, and for a small room the bill is one of the costs that falls due whether or not the bar is busy.
The 20% cut was announced in July by Andy Burnham, who had just become prime minister. Healey became Chancellor in August, succeeding Rachel Reeves, who had held the post under Sir Keir Starmer. Healey's change takes the relief further. It is now open to every venue with a rateable value under £1 million.
Healey also said that 70,000 retail, hospitality and leisure businesses pay no business rates at all as a result of the measures. Businesses with a rateable value under £18,000 will pay nothing under the statement.
Toni-Coe Brooker, campaigns and communications manager at the Music Venue Trust, which supports grassroots venues, called the measures positive steps toward easing financial pressure on those spaces.
UK Music, the trade body for the music industry, called the rate relief good news. It also urged the government to extend business rates relief to recording studios. UK Music pointed to the temporary 40% relief that film studios currently receive and asked for similar treatment for recording studios.
The Budget was titled "Breathing space for today, hope for the future" by the government. Healey framed it as relief from rising costs for families and businesses, with measures on energy bills, fuel duty and wages. HM Treasury published the full Budget document, a supporting collection of papers and a transcript of Healey's speech on 28 October.
For now, the rate cut applies to pubs, clubs and live music venues across the UK, and the studio question is still open.
