Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to take steps with the Valuation Office Agency to introduce new valuation methods for business rates for grassroots music venues.

As set out at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties, including those on the high street, from 2026-27. This permanent tax cut will ensure that they benefit from much-needed certainty and support.

In the interim period, for 2025-26, we have prevented the current RHL relief from ending in April 2025, extending it for one year at 40% up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business.

Music venues are valued in the same way as any other class of non-domestic property; through applying the statutory and common law principles that apply across non-domestic rating. The valuation approach adopted by the Valuation Office Agency follows one of the established three methods of valuation for rating - rentals, receipts and expenditure, or contractors (cost based). In most cases, the method adopted will be derived from rental evidence directly from the property, or from similar properties that share comparable physical characteristics.