Rates support announced for pubs and cafes across Wales
Pubs, restaurants, cafes, bars and live music venues across Wales are set to receive additional business rates support under a new Welsh Government scheme.
Around 4,400 hospitality businesses will be eligible for 15 per cent relief on their non-domestic rates bills in 2026-27, following an announcement by Welsh Government.
The package is worth up to £8 million and is funded through a combination of UK Government funding and Welsh Government resources. Ministers say this has allowed the scheme to be extended beyond pubs and music venues to also include restaurants and cafes.
The Welsh Government said the move is intended to help hospitality businesses manage rising costs and changing consumer habits, particularly on town centre high streets where food and drink venues often operate side by side.
The new support will sit alongside existing reliefs already in place. Almost half of pubs in Wales currently benefit from Small Business Rates Relief, with more than a quarter paying no business rates at all. Permanent rates reliefs provided by the Welsh Government are worth around £250 million each year.
Further changes are also planned from April, when the multiplier used to calculate rates bills will be reduced for the first time since 2010. In addition, £116 million in transitional relief will be provided over two years to help businesses adjust following the latest revaluation.
Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford said: “Pubs, restaurants, cafes, bars, and live music venues are at the heart of communities across Wales. We know they are facing real pressures, from rising costs to changing consumer habits.
“This additional support will help around 4,400 businesses as they adapt to these challenges. We have extended this relief to restaurants and cafes, as well as pubs and live music venues, because in towns and high streets across Wales these businesses operate side by side, often in direct competition. It makes sense to support them equally.”
He added: “This builds on more than £1 billion in temporary rates relief we have provided since 2020, alongside our permanent reliefs worth £250 million every year. We will continue to stand behind the hospitality businesses that serve our communities.”
Eligible businesses will be able to apply for the relief through their local authority from April 2026. The maximum relief available to any single business will be capped at £110,000 across Wales.
Responding to the announcement, the Federation of Small Businesses said the relief would be welcomed but warned that other parts of the hospitality and leisure sector had been left out.
Joshua Miles, Head of Wales at the Federation of Small Businesses, said:
“We’ve been highlighting the large increases in business rates facing hospitality and leisure businesses for some time, so it’s good to see Welsh Government respond with additional relief for some businesses.
“Although this news will bring a welcome, temporary reprieve for food and drink hospitality businesses and music venue owners, small firms across the rest of the hospitality and leisure sectors will be incredibly disappointed to not have been considered for support.”
He added: “Losing the previous 40 per cent discount, on top of April’s revaluation of the rateable value of premises, will take a heavy toll on small firms, threatening jobs and our high streets.
“The fact that this is another one-year temporary relief reflects a pattern of short-term fixes in a complicated and often arbitrary business rates system that needs urgent reform.”
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