Some local people have recently contacted me to share their concerns regarding recent changes to business rates announced within last week’s Autumn Budget.
I know how important a matter this is for local businesses, and particularly people running retail, hospitality, and leisure premises.
I wanted to update you on how the Budget is likely to affect you and to let you know that I have spoken to Government ministers about the need to keep supporting retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses in Portsmouth.
Some businesses will be seeing increases in their rateable values in April 2026 because this valuation is the first one since the pandemic, when, because of lockdown, valuations were necessarily lower due to the drop in footfall. Retail, hospitality and leisure businesses may also be concerned about the temporary pandemic relief on business rates that is coming to an end.
For most small businesses with property values under £100,000, the Government will cap any bill increases at 15% next year. This means that, whatever change there is in your valuation, in 2026/27 you should not pay any more than 15 per cent above whatever your bill is this year.
I acknowledge that large increases in rateable values, which are decided independently by the Valuation Office, and the ending of the temporary relief, has been a source of real concern. However, I wanted to reassure you that the Government announced at the Budget that it will step in to cap any such increases.
If you do not currently pay any business rates because you are too small, but your new valuation means you will start to be liable next year, any increases will be capped at £800. It’s also the case that many premises used by independent retail, hospitality and leisure businesses will still not pay any business rates, as their rateable value is less than £12,000.
Alongside this support, we are also permanently lowering the multipliers for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses. This will reduce bills for many businesses now, particularly if their valuation has not gone up as much, and if they were not eligible for covid-era relief.
These new rates will mean that eligible retail, hospitality, and leisure properties will have a permanently lower multiplier. For properties with rateable values under £500,000 the multiplier will fall from 55p to 43p, and for those with rateable values below £51,000 it will fall from 49.9p to 38.2p.
You can find more detail on these changes at:
There may be other reliefs and supplements that affect your bill and these are not considered above, but I would urge you to look at the Portsmouth City Council website to understand this in more detail, at https://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/services/business/business-rates/.
If you have any views about what you think should happen to business rates in the future, please let me know at stephen.morgan.mp@parliament.uk I will make sure ministers are aware.
