Checked against the rating list and the rules in force as at 2026-08-23.
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. Your council grants it under its own scheme, so whether it has reached your bill is the thing to check. Restaurants, cafés, nightclubs and hotels are excluded.
The government’s definition of a pub for this relief has four parts: open to the general public, free entry other than for occasional entertainment, drinking allowed without food, and drinks bought at a bar. Live music venues qualify if the premises are wholly or mainly used for live music performed to an audience.
Excluded by name: restaurants, cafés, nightclubs, snack bars, hotels, guest houses, sporting venues, festival sites, theatres, cinemas, museums, exhibition halls and casinos. Empty premises do not qualify.
There is no rateable value limit. A pub at £150,000 gets the same 15% as a pub at £15,000.
The bill is worked out in order. The retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier comes first, then transitional relief and supporting small business relief where they apply, then the 15%. It is a discount on what is left, so it does not shrink because another relief applied.
It covers 2026/27. The government has said pub bills will then be frozen in real terms for two further years.
There are 3,441 pubs on the 2026 rating list for London. The typical rateable value is £59,000, and 984 are at £100,000 or more. Only 324 sit at £12,000 or below, so small business rate relief reaches very few of them. For a pub, the 15% and the multiplier band are where the money is.
| Borough | Pubs | Typical rateable value | At £100,000+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Westminster | 363 | £121,000 | 223 |
| Camden | 235 | £86,000 | 96 |
| Islington | 216 | £52,750 | 53 |
| Southwark | 180 | £45,625 | 52 |
| Lambeth | 161 | £69,000 | 53 |
| City of London | 136 | £108,000 | 79 |
| Tower Hamlets | 134 | £35,250 | 19 |
| Wandsworth | 130 | £74,250 | 50 |
| Hackney | 129 | £50,500 | 33 |
| Richmond upon Thames | 123 | £63,500 | 38 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 113 | £68,500 | 37 |
| Bromley | 99 | £44,000 | 14 |
| Greenwich | 93 | £30,000 | 13 |
| Croydon | 92 | £30,750 | 7 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 89 | £106,000 | 51 |
| Hounslow | 88 | £30,375 | 10 |
| Hillingdon | 85 | £41,000 | 14 |
| Lewisham | 85 | £36,000 | 6 |
| Ealing | 84 | £36,500 | 13 |
| Bexley | 72 | £39,000 | 15 |
| Brent | 72 | £26,625 | 8 |
| Enfield | 72 | £32,750 | 8 |
| Haringey | 72 | £37,625 | 14 |
| Barnet | 68 | £37,750 | 10 |
| Kingston upon Thames | 68 | £59,500 | 15 |
| Havering | 60 | £59,750 | 12 |
| Newham | 60 | £18,000 | 6 |
| Waltham Forest | 59 | £46,500 | 5 |
| Sutton | 49 | £48,000 | 5 |
| Harrow | 47 | £29,500 | 4 |
| Merton | 46 | £69,000 | 11 |
| Redbridge | 39 | £64,000 | 9 |
| Barking and Dagenham | 22 | £21,900 | 1 |
The relief is granted by your council under a local scheme, so look for a line naming it. If the line is missing on an occupied pub that meets the definition, ask the council. If you would rather we did, send a photo of the bill.
At the same time, divide the gross charge by the rateable value. A pub is retail, hospitality and leisure, and the multiplier should be 0.392 below £51,000 or 0.440 above it. The standard rate on a pub is a coding error.
Every retail and hospitality premises in London has been checked against the official rating list. Enter your address to see yours. No sign-up, no phone number.
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Sources: Pubs and live music venues relief 2026 to 2027 (GOV.UK, business rates information letter 1/2026) · Pubs and live music venues relief: local authority guidance (GOV.UK)
Each borough page carries the spread of rateable values and the value per square metre, by type of premises. It also ranks the most expensive streets in the borough. Those aggregations are ours.
We checked 109,537 London retail and hospitality premises against the 2026 rating list — seeing your street’s figures is free, no sign-up.