Pubs and live music venues relief
The government has announced that in 2026-27, eligible pubs and live music venues will benefit from a 15% business rates relief on top of the support announced at Budget 2025. Their bills will then be frozen in real terms for a further 2 years.
The guidance for billing authorities to follow when determining eligibility is set out below.
Scope
The government’s policy intention is that pubs and live music venues should be eligible for the relief. The relief should apply to occupied properties only.
Pubs
Relief should only be awarded to pubs which meet all of the following characteristics:
- is open to the general public
- allows free entry other than when occasional entertainment is provided
- allows drinking without requiring food to be consumed
- permit drinks to be purchased at a bar
For these purposes, the meaning of pub does not include:
- restaurants, cafes, nightclubs, snack bars
- hotels, guesthouses, boarding houses
- sporting venues
- festival sites, theatres, cinemas
- museums, exhibition halls
- casinos
The proposed exclusions in the list above is not intended to be exhaustive and it will be for the local authority to determine those cases where eligibility is unclear.
Where eligibility is unclear local authorities should also consider broader factors in their assessment i.e. in meeting the stated intent of the policy that it demonstrates the characteristics that would lead it to be classified as a pub by the natural meaning of the word.
For example: being owned and operated by a brewery; establishments that are open to wide sections of local communities and practically operate as a pub for that local community e.g. working men’s club.
Live music venues
Live music venues are properties that are:
- wholly or mainly used for the performance of live music for the purpose of entertaining an audience
- can be used for other activities but only if those other activities are:
- ancillary or incidental to the performance of live music e.g. the sale of food or drink to audience members
- do not affect the primary use of the premises for the performance of live music e.g. because the activities are infrequent such as use of the venue as a polling station or fortnightly community event
Properties are not a live music venue for the purpose of this relief if:
- the property is wholly or mainly used as a nightclub or a theatre, for the purposes of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended).
There may be circumstances where it is difficult to tell whether an activity is a performance of live music or, instead, the playing of recorded music. Although we would expect this to be clear in most circumstances. Guidance on this may be found in Chapter 16 of the statutory guidance issued in April 2018 under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003.
The relief will be applied after mandatory reliefs and other discretionary reliefs.
Bolton Council intends to apply the relief without the business having to submit a formal application but if your bill does not include the relief and you think it should please email business.rates@bolton.gov.uk.