UK Hospitality Business Rates Report 2026
What pubs, restaurants, cafes and hotels are worth to the rating system, and what they pay. Built from the full Valuation Office Agency rating list of 2,138,259 properties.
Business rates are worked out from a property's rateable value, set by the Valuation Office Agency, multiplied by a rate set by government. For 2026 there is a lower multiplier for retail, hospitality and leisure (38.2p in the pound) and full relief for the smallest premises. The figures below cover every pub, restaurant, cafe, hotel and guest house the VOA records by name in the rating list as of 17 June 2026.
Notable findings
Rateable value and rates by business type
| Business type | Premises | Median rateable value | Average rateable value | Indicative annual bill |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pubs | 38,793 | £24,000 | £42,674 | £9,168 |
| Restaurants | 34,832 | £27,500 | £51,920 | £10,505 |
| Cafes | 20,476 | £11,500 | £18,324 | Usually £0 (full relief) |
| Hotels | 7,722 | £99,000 | £323,877 | £47,520 |
| Guest houses & B&Bs | 6,838 | £7,600 | £9,925 | Usually £0 (full relief) |
Indicative annual bill applies the 2026 multiplier to the median rateable value for each type, before any relief: 38.2p for premises under £51,000, 48.0p at or above it. Premises with a rateable value up to £12,000 usually pay nothing after small business rate relief. Actual bills vary with reliefs, transitional arrangements and local decisions.
Where hospitality sits against the relief thresholds
The thresholds matter: premises up to £12,000 usually pay no rates, those up to £51,000 get the lower hospitality multiplier, and only the largest pay the standard rate.
Methodology and sources
Built from the complete Valuation Office Agency 2026 rating list for England and Wales (2,138,259 non-domestic properties). Hospitality premises are identified by their VOA bill description (for example "public house and premises", "restaurant and premises", "cafe and premises"), giving 108,285 premises. Rateable value figures are the published list values as of 17 June 2026. Indicative bills use the 2026 multipliers published by gov.uk. A property can fall under more than one description, so category counts are not a strict partition.
This is a count of premises the VOA describes as licensed and sit-down hospitality, not of every UK food business. The VOA records most quick-service outlets (takeaways, sandwich shops, bakeries and delis) under the generic "shop" description rather than by food type, so they cannot be isolated reliably and are not included here. Mobile caterers and food trucks have no rateable premises, so they fall outside business rates altogether. By comparison, the Food Standards Agency rates roughly 550,000 food businesses, because that scheme also covers retailers, schools, care homes, manufacturers and mobile caterers.
Source: Valuation Office Agency 2026 rating list (England & Wales), Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Cite this report
Paddl (2026). UK Hospitality Business Rates Report 2026. Data from the Valuation Office Agency rating list (Open Government Licence). https://paddl-ai.co/reports/uk-hospitality-business-rates-2026
Check what relief you could be owed
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