Food and Drink Hospitality Rates Relief 2026-27

The Welsh Government will provide grant funding to all 22 local authorities in Wales to deliver Food and Drink Hospitality Rates Relief to eligible businesses for 2026-27. The relief will support eligible occupied properties by offering a discount of 15% on non-domestic rates bills for such properties.

The relief will apply to all eligible businesses, subject to a cap on the amount each business can claim across Wales. The total amount of relief available is £110,000 across all properties occupied by the same business. All businesses are required to make a declaration when applying to individual local authorities, confirming that the amount of relief they are seeking across Wales does not exceed this cap.

Which properties will benefit from relief?

Applications must be made to local authorities by 31 March 2027 for ratepayers to be eligible for Food and Drink Hospitality Rates Relief in 2026-27.

Properties that will benefit from this relief will be occupied food and drink hospitality properties, such as pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars and live music venues across Wales. More detailed eligibility criteria and exceptions to the relief are set out below.

Relief should be granted to each eligible business as a reduction to its rates bill based on occupation between 1 April 2026 and 31 March 2027. It is intended that, for the purposes of this relief, eligible properties will mean the following (subject to the other criteria in this guidance).

Hereditaments that are being used for the sale of food and/or drink to visiting members of the public, such as:

• Pubs
• Restaurants 
• Cafés 
• Bars 
• 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. An eligible property can only be used for other activities which are ancillary or incidental to the performance of live music (e.g. the sale of food or drink to audience members) or do not affect this primary use (e.g. infrequent use of the venue as a polling station or community event).

Many live music venues are classified as other property types which are eligible for this relief (e.g. pubs, restaurants and bars). A property is not a live music venue for the purpose of this relief if it is wholly or mainly used as a nightclub or a theatre.

Properties not considered to be eligible for Food and Drink Hospitality Rates Relief

The following uses of hereditaments and other circumstances are not considered to be eligible for the relief. In some cases, it will be for local authorities to determine if hereditaments are of a type listed and would not be eligible.

Hereditaments that are:

• Subject to the retail multiplier
• Used wholly or mainly for the provision of living accommodation as a business (e.g. hotels, guest and boarding houses, holiday homes, and caravan parks and sites)
• Used wholly of mainly for the sale of goods to visiting members of the public (e.g. shops, showrooms, retail warehouses and supermarkets)
• Used wholly or mainly for the sale or provision of services to visiting members of the public (e.g. financial or professional services, salons and launderettes)
• Used wholly or mainly for sports and leisure facilities for visiting members of the public (e.g. sports centres, visitor attractions, theatres and cinemas)
• Used wholly or mainly for the assembly of visiting members of the public (e.g. clubhouses, public halls and institutions)

Hereditaments that are not reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public

If a hereditament is not usually reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public, it will be ineligible for the relief, even if there is ancillary use of the hereditament that might be considered to fall within the descriptions listed under Which properties will benefit from relief?  

Hereditaments that are not occupied

Hereditaments that are not occupied are not eligible this relief. However, such properties may be eligible for 100% Empty Property Rates Relief for the first three months (and in certain cases, six months) that they are empty. If a hereditament becomes occupied and used for an eligible purpose, it may qualify for the relief for the remainder of the year from the date of occupation.

Hereditaments that are owned, rented or managed by a local authority

Hereditaments owned, rented or managed by a local authority, such as visitor centre restaurants and council-run coffee shops are not eligible for the relief.