Your 2027/28 business rates bill: check the rateable value, claim relief, and challenge it

For a single-site cafe at £18,000 rateable value, the rates bill arriving in February or March falls from £6,876 in 2026/27, before transitional relief, to nothing in 2027/28. It is the second bill since hospitality relief ended in April 2026, and for small sites it is kinder.

In England, from 1 April 2027, a restaurant or cafe that is its occupier's only property pays no business rates up to £18,000 rateable value, with relief tapering to nothing at £21,000. Above that, the bill is the rateable value times 39.5p (under £51,000) or 44.5p, and rises are capped at CPI inflation for two years. Three checks catch most errors: the rateable value, the relief, and the multiplier. If the value is wrong, use Check, Challenge, Appeal.

Last checked: 5 November 2026.

How do you find and check your rateable value?

Your rateable value is the Valuation Office's estimate of the yearly rent the property could have fetched on 1 April 2024. The Valuation Office was the Valuation Office Agency until it became part of HMRC on 1 April 2026, the same day the 2026 rating list took effect. Every other line on the bill depends on this number.

1. Look it up. Search your address on gov.uk's Find a business rates valuation. No login is needed. Check the description (for example "Restaurant and premises") and that the address covers the space you actually occupy.
2. Open the detail. The summary valuation shows the floor areas, how each area was valued and the price per square metre. To see more or to change anything, you need a business rates valuation account. Register now, not when the bill lands: the Valuation Office says registering and claiming a property can take up to 15 working days.
3. Check the facts, not the opinion. Measure the dining room, kitchen, stores and any basement. Look for space you do not use, an extension that was never built, outdoor areas counted as internal, or a use you do not have.
4. Compare with neighbours. Look up two or three similar restaurants or cafes on the same street. A much higher price per square metre on yours is a question worth asking.

If every fact is right, the value is probably defensible. Disagreeing with the Valuation Office's view of rent levels needs rental evidence, which is where a challenge gets harder.

What will your 2027/28 business rates bill be?

The bill is the rateable value times the multiplier, less any relief. Here are worked bills for a restaurant or cafe in England with one property, using the 2027/28 figures from Business Rates Information Letter 8/2026 (MHCLG, updated 30 October 2026) and the 2026/27 multipliers from gov.uk's estimate your business rates page.

What the table shows. The big change is between £12,001 and £21,000. A cafe at £18,000 rateable value paid £6,876 in 2026/27 before any transitional or supporting relief and pays nothing in 2027/28. Above £21,000 the bill rises 3.4% to 3.5%, in line with the multipliers (38.2p to 39.5p, 43p to 44.5p). The CPI cap matters most where a bill would otherwise rise faster than inflation, for example while transitional relief is still phasing in the 2026 revaluation.

The taper is linear: the letter says relief "tapers evenly to 0% relief at £21,000", so a value of £19,500 gets 50% and £20,000 gets a third. The letter also says the regulations will follow "in the coming weeks", so check the final figures on your bill.

The table leaves out transitional relief, the CPI cap, supporting small business relief and the 1p transitional relief supplement, any of which can move a real bill. Your council's bill is the final word. Why the Budget made these changes is in our Autumn Budget 2026 guide; pubs have their own relief and calculator in the pub business rates guide.

Copy this worksheet and fill it in when the bill arrives:

BUSINESS RATES BILL CHECK: 2027/28 (ENGLAND)

Property address on the bill: ______________________
Account number: ______________________

1. Rateable value on the bill            £________
   Same as gov.uk "Find a valuation"?    [ ] Yes  [ ] No: ask the council
2. Multiplier on the bill                ________p
   RHL property, RV under £51,000        should be 39.5p
   RHL property, RV £51,000 to £499,999  should be 44.5p
3. Gross bill = RV × multiplier          £________
4. Small business rate relief
   Only property and RV £18,000 or less  should be 100%
   RV £18,001 to £20,999                 (21,000 − RV) ÷ 3,000 = ____%
   RV £21,000 or more                    none
   Second property? Other properties each under £2,900 and
   total RV £29,999 or less              relief can continue
5. Other relief lines on the bill
   [ ] CPI cap (RHL)  [ ] Transitional relief  [ ] Supporting small business
6. Net bill                              £________
7. Monthly cost (net bill ÷ 12)          £________
8. Compare with last year's bill         £________  Change: ____%

Anything missing or wrong at 2 to 5: email the council's business rates
team with the account number. Wrong at 1: start a check with the
Valuation Office.

Put the monthly figure from line 7 into your 13-week cash flow forecast, and see where rates sit against sales in our UK restaurant profit margin guide. If the bill is one of several strains, the early warning checklist in our restaurant and pub insolvency guide helps you decide what to do first.

Which reliefs should be on a restaurant's bill from April 2027?

Four can apply to a restaurant or cafe in England in 2027/28. Use this table to check the bill line by line.

Four rules from the letter and gov.uk catch owners:

• A second site. gov.uk's small business rate relief page says that if you took on a second property on or after 27 November 2025, you keep relief on the first for 36 months (12 months if it was earlier). After that, relief continues only if each other property is under £2,900 and the total stays under a limit that, from April 2027, becomes a single £29,999 across England (now under £20,000, or £28,000 in London).
• Empty premises. The letter says a property vacant on 1 April cannot get the CPI cap for that year.
• Improvements. The cap does not cover a higher rateable value caused by improvements, such as an extension.
• Asking. gov.uk says some relief is automatic and some needs an application, and tells owners to contact the council. Do not assume.

Should you challenge your rateable value?

Only with a factual error or strong rental evidence, because the data shows a check can raise a value as well as cut it. Our analysis of the checks and challenges statistics (HMRC, 6 August 2026, Open Government Licence) for the 2023 list in England:

Source: our analysis of Non-domestic rating: challenges and changes, 2023 and 2026 rating lists, June 2026 (tables EW23_1_1 and EW23_4_1). The statistics have no split by property type.

Three readings for an owner:

1. A check made without an agent succeeds more often, and backfires more often. More than a third cut the value, but 1 in 14 raised it. A check reopens the facts, including ones that were in your favour.
2. Challenges are where values move. Once a check is decided and you still disagree, more than half of resolved challenges ended in a lower value.
3. Incomplete challenges go nowhere. A further 12,180 challenges were closed as incomplete, not counted above. That is why the evidence rule below matters.

The 2026 list is young. By 30 June 2026, 13,710 checks had been registered in England; of the 5,950 resolved, 13% cut the value. Cases take months, so a check started now will not change your first 2027/28 instalment.

A decision rule. Start a check if a fact on the valuation is wrong, if similar premises nearby are valued well below yours per square metre, or if something has changed the premises since 1 April 2024 (for example a lost car park or long-term roadworks). Do not start one only because the bill feels high. Rating agents are paid to do this; the table shows owners can, too, but an agent may know the rental evidence. Check any agent's fee terms before you sign.

How does Check, Challenge, Appeal work?

Three stages, all through the business rates valuation account, according to gov.uk's challenge the valuation guidance (updated 9 July 2026):

1. Check. Confirm or correct the facts held about your property, such as floor areas, use and layout.
2. Challenge. If you disagree with the check decision, challenge within 4 months of receiving it, or if the check has not been decided after 12 months. Send the reason, evidence that the valuation is wrong, a proposed rateable value, a supporting statement and, if the property is rented, the rent details, all together. Further evidence is accepted later only in exceptional circumstances. Knowingly giving false information can lead to a penalty.
3. Appeal. If you disagree with the challenge decision, appeal to the independent Valuation Tribunal.

Keep paying the bill as issued while a case runs. Councils say the same: "You must always keep paying your rates while you wait to hear back," and a successful appeal is refunded, according to Cheshire East Council's appeals page. Requests to change a 2023 list value had to be made by 31 March 2026; from 1 April you can usually only ask about the new valuation, according to the February 2026 notice.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own rates systems; none of the figures in this guide apply there. Check your own figures with your council or a rating surveyor for your situation.

Can TablePort handle this for you?

The link is a short one: TablePort does not calculate or challenge rates, but it shows the bill against what you take.

1. Set the monthly figure against sales. The daily report records each day's sales with an AI-written summary, so £987.50 a month of rates can be judged against a real week's takings.
2. Watch labour against revenue. Staff Management shows labour cost against forecast sales on the rota, the other cost that moves in April.

The limit: your bill, reliefs and any challenge stay with the council and the Valuation Office. See restaurant management.