SBRR Threshold Raise Proposal: See How Much You Could Save?

It has been reported in several media outlets in the last week that UK Treasury officials – ahead of the October 2026 Budget - have been holding workshops with business groups in September to discuss measures that could reduce business ratesThe tax most non-residential properties in England pay to their local council, similar to council tax but for shops, offices, warehouses and other business premises. as part of a drive to revive high streets up and down the country.

The option under consideration is to increase the current minimum threshold of £12,000 of rateable valueThe official estimate of a property's annual rental value on a fixed valuation date. Your rates bill is based on this figure, not on what you actually pay in rent. (set in 2017) and raise it in line with inflation over the period to 2026, which would take it to just above £17,000 with a taper relief up to £20,000.

Businessratechecker.com ran the numbers on how this could impact small businesses across the country. The table below shows the savings an individual high street shop could save at the different rateable value rates assuming it is a single shop paying the 38.2p multiplierThe pence-in-the-pound rate the government sets each year. Your rates bill is roughly Rateable Value × multiplier, before any reliefs are applied. per £1 of rateable value.

The table above shows material savings for shops with rateable values between £13,000 and £19,000 reducing bills by as much as £6,494 at certain bands.

Overall, our data shows this could affect about 176,000 properties in England and could cost the Treasury about £750 million in lost tax receipts although the actual number may be slightly lower as these reductions only apply to single site properties.