The 2026 Business Rates Shake-Up: What It Means for Kent Shops, Cafes and Salons

If you run a shop, cafe, salon, pub or any business with a high-street presence across Gravesend, Dartford or Medway, your business rates bill looks different this year. April 2026 brought the biggest change to the system in years: a full revaluation of every property, the end of the temporary retail, hospitality and leisure relief, and a brand-new set of multipliers. Some Kent businesses are paying less, some are paying more, and a fair few owners have opened their bill and not quite understood why. Here is what has changed, in plain English.

How a business rates bill is worked out

Business rates are the tax on most non-domestic properties — shops, offices, workshops, warehouses and the like. Your bill starts with a rateable value (RV), which is the Valuation Office Agency’s estimate of your property’s annual rental value. That figure is then multiplied by a multiplier (a number in pence) to give your headline bill, before any reliefs are applied. So two things drive what you pay: your rateable value and the multiplier that applies to you. Both changed in April 2026.

What changed on 1 April 2026

Two big things happened at once. First, a revaluation took effect on 1 April 2026, based on rental values as at 1 April 2024. Because rents have moved since the last revaluation, most rateable values have been reassessed — and across England total rateable value rose by around 19%. Your own RV may be higher, lower or much the same, depending on your property and location.

Second, the temporary 40% retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) relief that propped up many high-street bills in 2025/26 has ended. In its place, the government has introduced permanent lower multipliers for qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure premises. The system has moved from two multipliers to five, set by property type and rateable value.

The new multipliers in plain numbers

For 2026/27 in England, the multipliers are:

• Small business multiplier — 43.2p for most properties with a rateable value below £51,000.
• Standard multiplier — 48.0p for properties with a rateable value from £51,000 to £499,999.
• Small business RHL multiplier — 38.2p for qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure premises with a rateable value below £51,000.
• Standard RHL multiplier — 43.0p for qualifying RHL premises with a rateable value from £51,000 to £499,999.
• High-value multiplier — 50.8p for the largest properties, with a rateable value of £500,000 or more.

The key point for most Kent high-street businesses is that the two RHL multipliers are set 5p below the equivalent standard rates. Unlike the old relief, which had to be renewed each year and always felt temporary, these lower rates are permanent — which at least makes budgeting a little easier.

Small business rate relief still applies

None of this replaces small business rate relief, which remains one of the most valuable breaks going. If your property has a rateable value of £12,000 or less and you occupy only one property, you generally pay nothing at all. Between £12,001 and £15,000 the relief tapers away gradually. Many smaller Kent shops and offices fall inside this band, so it is always worth checking whether you qualify before assuming your bill is correct.

Extra help worth knowing about

There is some additional support in the mix. A redesigned transitional relief scheme limits how fast bills can rise for those facing large increases at the revaluation, so a jump in your rateable value should not hit all at once. Businesses moving off the old RHL relief are protected by supporting small business relief, which caps the yearly increase. And eligible pubs and live music venues were handed a further 15% relief announced in January 2026. The rules are fiddly, but the headline is that a bigger bill on paper does not always mean a bigger bill in practice.

What Kent business owners should do now

A few sensible steps will make sure you are not overpaying:

• Check your rateable value. Look up your property on the Valuation Office Agency listing and make sure the RV reflects reality. If it looks too high, it can be challenged.
• Confirm the right multiplier is being used. If you are a shop, cafe or salon, you should be on an RHL multiplier — not the standard one. Mistakes happen.
• Claim every relief you are due. Small business rate relief, transitional relief and any sector-specific help should all be applied. If they are not showing on your bill, query it.
• Budget for the three-year window. These values hold until the next revaluation in 2029, so it is worth building the right number into your forecasts now.

How MCC Partners can help

Business rates sit outside the tax returns we usually talk about, but they are a real cost that eats into margin — and errors are common. For shops, cafes, salons and other premises-based businesses across Gravesend and the wider Kent area, we can sense-check your bill, make sure the correct multiplier and reliefs are being applied, and build the right figure into your cash-flow plan. If your rateable value looks wrong, we will point you to the right route to challenge it.