Checked against the rating list and the rules in force as at 2026-08-23.
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. Your bill is the new value times the 2026/27 multiplier, less any relief. Three things can bring it down: transitional relief, supporting small business relief, and the reliefs you were entitled to before, which do not always survive a new bill.
The Valuation Office, now part of HMRC, gave every non-domestic property in England a new rateable value. The 2026 list is based on rental evidence at 1 April 2024. The previous list was based on 2021 rents, so the new values carry three years of rent movement in one step.
The multipliers changed at the same time. Retail, hospitality and leisure premises now have their own lower bands, 0.392 below £51,000 and 0.440 from there to £500,000, and a higher band of 0.518 applies at £500,000 and above. Which band you are on is set by the rateable value and by how your council has coded the property.
On the 2026 list London has 109,101 retail, hospitality and leisure premises with a published rateable value. The typical change against the 2023 list is +15%. 26.1% rose by 25% or more. 6.6% fell.
The spread between boroughs is wide. In Sutton 60% of premises rose by 25% or more, in Hackney 39.9%, in Merton 38.5%. In the City of London the figure is 7.2%, in Camden 13.9%, in Brent 15%.
| Borough | Typical change | Rose 25%+ | Fell |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sutton | +29.3% | 60.0% | 6.0% |
| Hackney | +21.2% | 39.9% | 1.8% |
| Merton | +20.0% | 38.5% | 3.6% |
| Kensington and Chelsea | +20.3% | 36.2% | 2.6% |
| Bromley | +15.9% | 35.3% | 11.3% |
| Croydon | +17.8% | 34.0% | 7.3% |
| Waltham Forest | +17.9% | 34.0% | 9.1% |
| Haringey | +20.4% | 33.8% | 1.5% |
| Islington | +18.3% | 32.8% | 3.7% |
| Tower Hamlets | +18.9% | 31.7% | 7.0% |
| Havering | +14.8% | 31.6% | 14.2% |
| Westminster | +12.1% | 30.0% | 9.3% |
| Redbridge | +15.0% | 28.9% | 10.7% |
| Harrow | +14.3% | 27.4% | 11.9% |
| Wandsworth | +14.9% | 26.7% | 2.6% |
| Kingston upon Thames | +10.3% | 26.2% | 12.1% |
| Enfield | +19.5% | 22.9% | 1.9% |
| Lambeth | +15.4% | 22.9% | 1.8% |
| Lewisham | +10.2% | 22.2% | 1.2% |
| Greenwich | +9.1% | 21.9% | 12.2% |
| Hillingdon | +18.0% | 20.9% | 4.5% |
| Barking and Dagenham | +18.4% | 20.6% | 2.4% |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | +13.8% | 20.2% | 7.8% |
| Barnet | +14.0% | 19.5% | 1.3% |
| Newham | +14.3% | 19.4% | 4.1% |
| Ealing | +11.6% | 19.2% | 5.8% |
| Hounslow | +10.7% | 18.2% | 3.7% |
| Southwark | +10.4% | 17.9% | 4.3% |
| Richmond upon Thames | +9.2% | 16.3% | 11.3% |
| Bexley | +10.6% | 15.7% | 10.7% |
| Brent | +9.7% | 15.0% | 3.7% |
| Camden | +13.5% | 13.9% | 5.2% |
| City of London | +4.7% | 7.2% | 42.5% |
Transitional relief limits the increase caused by the revaluation. For 2026/27 the cap is 5% for rateable values up to £28,000 in London, 15% from £28,001 to £100,000, and 30% above £100,000, with inflation added in later years. Your council applies it automatically and it shows as a line on the bill.
The cap is on the increase from the revaluation only. If a relief you had before has dropped off, the cap does not put it back.
On the 2026 list, 9,390 London premises, 8.6% of the total, moved from £12,000 or below to above it. For anyone who held small business rate relief and lost some or all of it at the revaluation, supporting small business relief 2026 caps the rise in the bill at £800 a year, or the transitional relief percentage if that is higher. It is automatic and runs to March 2029.
Your entitlement to the reliefs you qualified for before. Small business rate relief is claimed in your own name and can fall off at a change of occupier. The retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier depends on how the property is coded. Neither is checked for you when a new bill is issued.
Your right to ask the Valuation Office to check the facts behind the value, and to challenge it. A challenge can move the value either way, so it needs a comparison with the street first.
Divide the gross charge by the rateable value. The result is the multiplier you are being charged at, and you can compare it with the bands above. Then read the relief lines: transitional relief, supporting small business relief, small business rate relief. What is missing is as telling as what is there.
Public data shows the value and where it sits on the street. It does not show what your council has put on the bill, so the bill is the thing to send.
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: Revaluation (GOV.UK) · Transitional relief (GOV.UK) · Supporting small business relief (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.