The questions owners actually ask

Each one answered in a sentence first, then in full. Where the answer is “you can do this yourself”, that is what it says.

Do restaurants get business rates relief in England? Yes. Restaurants sit in the retail, hospitality and leisure class, which is charged at a lower multiplier than the standard one. Smaller premises may qualify for small business rate relief as well. Am I eligible for small business rate relief if my rateable value is £14,000? It depends on the rateable value and on how many properties you occupy. At £12,000 or below, with one property, the relief covers the whole bill. How do I know if I am paying too much business rates for my shop? Three steps. Check that the rateable value on the official list is right. Divide the gross charge on your bill by that value to see which multiplier your council is charging you at. What is Employment Allowance and can I claim it for previous years? Employment Allowance reduces an employer’s National Insurance bill by up to £10,500 a year. It has nothing to do with business rates. I have just taken over a shop lease. Do the reliefs transfer to me? No. Reliefs follow the occupier, not the premises. Whatever the previous tenant claimed ended when they left, and you have to claim in your own right. What is the business rates multiplier and how is my bill calculated? The multiplier is the tax rate. Your annual bill is roughly the rateable value multiplied by it, less any reliefs. There are several bands, depending on the size of the rateable value and on whether the property is retail, hospitality or leisure. How much do business rates consultants charge in the UK? Three kinds of people do this work: your accountant, a rating surveyor, and consultants who charge a share of what they recover. Fees run from fixed sums to hourly rates to a percentage. Are no-win-no-fee business rates companies legitimate? The model itself is ordinary and widely used, and every relief you can recover is published government policy. What matters is whether a particular firm is worth dealing with. My shop rateable value seems higher than my neighbours. What can I do? Compare the rate per square metre, not the headline figure. A bigger unit should carry a bigger rateable value, so two neighbours with very different totals may be valued identically. Can small business rate relief be backdated, and how far? Up to six years. Small business rate relief is a mandatory relief rather than something your council decides to grant, and since 2012 there has been no application deadline. Is there a service that checks whether my business rates bill is wrong? Yes, three kinds. Free lookup tools establish the facts from the public rating list and rule things out, but they cannot confirm a billing error. Business rates help for restaurants in London: where do I start? Start with the multiplier on your bill, because that is where London restaurants lose the most without noticing. Divide the gross charge by your rateable value. Will the small business rate relief threshold rise to £17,096? Nothing has been decided. Press reports in September 2026 say the Chancellor is considering raising the small business rate relief threshold from £12,000 to £17,096 at the Budget on 28 October. Why have my business rates gone up in 2026? Because every rateable value in England was reset on 1 April 2026, based on rents at 1 April 2024. Across London’s retail, hospitality and leisure premises the typical rateable value rose 15%, and one in four rose by 25% or more. Can I challenge my 2026 rateable value? Yes. Any ratepayer can ask the Valuation Office, now part of HMRC, to check the facts behind a 2026 rateable value, and then to challenge the value itself. Does my pub get the 15% business rates relief in 2026/27? If it is an occupied pub that is open to the general public, lets people drink without ordering food and serves drinks at a bar, yes: 15% off the 2026/27 bill, applied after any other relief, with no cash cap. How much are business rates on a shop in London? It depends on the rateable value, which is public. The typical London shop on the 2026 list has a rateable value of £18,500 and the typical café or restaurant £43,750. What is Supporting Small Business relief 2026? Supporting Small Business relief 2026 is for ratepayers who lost some or all of their small business rate relief, or rural rate relief, because their rateable value rose at the April 2026 revaluation. How did the 2026 business rates revaluation affect each London borough? On the 2026 rating list, London’s 109,101 retail, hospitality and leisure premises have a typical rateable value of £21,000, up 15% on the 2023 list.

Using this site

Do I have to give you my details to see my premises?

No. Browsing your street and reading the initial assessment requires no account, no email address and no phone number. We ask for a name and a number only when you want us to take something further.

What do you actually need from me?

For an initial view, nothing. To confirm anything, a photograph of your rates bill. The public record shows what this property is. Only the bill shows what you are charged for it.

Is my information safe?

We use what you send us to look at your own premises and nothing else. No mailing lists, no sale or sharing with third parties. The full position is in our privacy policy.

Or go straight to your own premises

All 33 London boroughs, every retail and hospitality premises, checked against the official rating list.

Public data only. We do not ask for your rates bill, and there is nothing to upload.

One flat fee: 15% of the savings we secure, confirmed in writing by the council. Nothing saved, nothing to pay.

If there's nothing to save, we say so.