Checked against the rating list and the rules in force as at 2026-08-23.
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. If that happened, 19,223 London retail, hospitality and leisure premises, 17.5% of the total, would move into the full relief band on rateable value alone. Who they are depends heavily on the borough.
Written 24 September 2026. Updated when the Budget is published.
The threshold for full small business rate relief has been £12,000 since 2017. Uprated for inflation since then it comes to about £17,096, and that is the figure the reports use. It is an option under consideration, described as such by the papers that reported it. It is not a policy, and it has not been costed in public.
This page was written on 24 September 2026. It will be updated when the Budget is published.
We took every retail, hospitality and leisure premises on the 2026 rating list for London, 109,684 of them, and counted how many sit between £12,000 and £17,096. There are 19,223, or 17.5%. Another 25,764 (23.5%) are already at or below £12,000. Together that is 41% of London’s shops, cafés, restaurants and pubs at or below the reported line.
Three qualifications. This is rateable value only. Small business rate relief goes to an occupier of one property, or of one main property with small others, so a chain of small units would not qualify. And premises between £12,000 and £15,000 already get a tapered relief, so for them the change is from part of the bill to all of it.
| Borough | Newly in band (£12,001–£17,096) | At or below £17,096 |
|---|---|---|
| Sutton | 26.5% | 62.8% |
| Barking and Dagenham | 26.2% | 61.8% |
| Havering | 25.7% | 52.7% |
| Waltham Forest | 24.8% | 56.1% |
| Croydon | 24.6% | 61.7% |
| Bromley | 24.0% | 49.8% |
| Ealing | 22.7% | 51.8% |
| Barnet | 22.3% | 39.4% |
| Harrow | 21.7% | 44.5% |
| Redbridge | 21.7% | 46.3% |
| Lambeth | 21.5% | 49.2% |
| Hillingdon | 21.4% | 51.8% |
| Lewisham | 21.1% | 67.6% |
| Kingston upon Thames | 20.8% | 41.6% |
| Enfield | 20.7% | 50.3% |
| Brent | 20.5% | 46.4% |
| Richmond upon Thames | 19.8% | 41.2% |
| Merton | 19.6% | 54.4% |
| Haringey | 19.5% | 45.5% |
| Hackney | 18.7% | 36.4% |
| Newham | 18.3% | 47.0% |
| Greenwich | 17.9% | 58.8% |
| Bexley | 17.5% | 71.2% |
| Southwark | 17.5% | 43.5% |
| Islington | 17.0% | 33.0% |
| Wandsworth | 16.3% | 36.8% |
| Hounslow | 15.9% | 47.1% |
| Tower Hamlets | 15.2% | 35.5% |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 13.2% | 26.1% |
| Camden | 9.6% | 19.5% |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 4.3% | 15.1% |
| City of London | 3.9% | 7.2% |
| Westminster | 3.8% | 6.8% |
The band is set nationally. In outer London a quarter of premises would come in: Sutton 26.5%, Barking and Dagenham 26.2%, Havering 25.7%, Waltham Forest 24.8%, Croydon 24.6%. In the centre the values sit far above the line: Westminster 3.8%, the City of London 3.9%, Kensington and Chelsea 4.3%, Camden 9.6%.
A shop in Soho with a rateable value of £60,000 gets nothing from a higher threshold. It gets the retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier, and transitional relief on the increase, and those are the lines to check on its bill.
London has 3,441 pubs on the 2026 list with a typical rateable value of £59,000. 84.5% are above £17,096, and 984 are at £100,000 or more. Only 209 sit in the band a higher threshold would bring in. For pubs the relief that matters in 2026/27 is the 15% pubs and live music venues discount, which has no rateable value limit.
If your rateable value is £12,000 or below today, you are already in the full band and the question is whether the relief is on your bill. It has to be claimed from your council, and it does not carry over from a previous occupier.
If you are between £12,000 and £17,096, nothing changes until the Budget says so. Look up your street to see where you sit, and we will tell you which lines to check on the bill in the meantime.
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: Small business rate relief (GOV.UK) · Business rates cut will backfire for Soho and West End (City AM, 22 September 2026)
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.