Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the calculation of the base liability for the transitional relief in the 2026 business rates revaluation (a) includes and (b) excludes the application of Retail, Hospitality and Leisure rate relief in 2025-26.

At the Budget the Chancellor announced a support package for ratepayers seeing significant bill increases as a result of the 2026 revaluation. This includes two key reliefs, Transitional Relief and Supporting Small Business Relief.

Transitional Relief is calculated from a base liability of the 2025/26 bill before all other reliefs.

The Supporting Small Business Relief provides support for ratepayers losing certain reliefs including the current 40% relief for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure. The Supporting Small Businesses Relief is calculated from a base liability that takes into account the effect of eligible reliefs – Small Business Rate Relief, Rural Rate Relief, 2025/26 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief, or 2023 Supporting Small Business Relief. The government published guidance for local authorities on the administration of the scheme on 15 December. This can be found on gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-rates-relief-2026-supporting-small-business-relief-local-authority-guidance).