Hunt announces £13.6 billion business rates support package

The government will proceed with a revaluation of business properties from April 2023 to calculate new levels of business rates, but provide temporary support to limit the impact of surging inflation, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said on Thursday.

Hunt said he would soften the blow on businesses with a £13.6 billion support package over the next five years for business rates payers in England.

“Nearly two thirds of properties will not pay a penny more next year and thousands of pubs, restaurants and small high street shops will benefit,” he told parliament during the presentation of his autumn statement.

The business rates multiplier will be frozen for another year (2023-24), worth £9.3 billion over the next five years, while rates relief for 230,000 businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure sectors was also increased from 50 per cent to 75 per cent next year, up to £110,000 per business.

Worth almost £2.1 billion this is the most generous in year business rates relief in over 30 years, outside of Covid-19 support, the Treasury said.

Hunt added that a new government funded Transitional Relief scheme would benefit around 700,000 businesses. The £1.6 billion scheme will cap bill increases for the smallest properties to 5 per cent.

Overall, business rates would rise by less than 1 per cent, compared with more than 20 per cent without a change in policy, the Treasury said.

Businesses seeing lower bills as a result of the revaluation will benefit from that decrease in full straight away, as the chancellor abolished downwards transitional reliefs caps. Small businesses who lose eligibility for either Small Business or Rural Rate Relief as a result of the new property revaluations will see their bill increases capped at £50 a month through a new separate scheme worth over £500 million.