Business Rate Relief – Treasury to amend its ‘retail, hospitality and leisure’ legislation following British Marine’s representations

6 January 2026

Late last year the Government confirmed its plan to replace the 40% RHL (retail, hospitality & leisure) relief on non-domestic rates, currently awarded at the discretion of local authorities, with new permanent lower multipliers for qualifying RHL hereditaments in England and Wales.

Given the revaluation of business rates means most businesses will face higher rates from 1 April 2026, the RHL lower multiplier will be crucial the leisure industry, including many marinas and passenger boat businesses that till now have regularly received RHL rate relief. Yet before British Marine’s recent representations, this was not fully understood by the Treasury and why, with the most limited scrutiny, had introduced legislation (SI 2025/1093) which erroneously excludes “marinas” and “river boat services” amongst others from qualifying for the lower RHL multiplier.

On discovering this British Marine’s Chief Executive, Lesley Robinson, immediately wrote to the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Dan Tomlinson MP, and British Marine’s Public Affairs Manager began a series of conversations with Treasury Officials and others in government to highlight our concerns about this legislative error.

As British Marine reopened its offices following the Christmas Break, Lesley was delighted to receive a constructive response from the Treasury Minister, dated 5 January 2026, in which he acknowledged the fact marinas are indeed part of the leisure industry and thanked British Marine for alerting him to the fact marinas currently receive RHL rate relief.

In his reply, the Minister apologised for the concern caused to British Marine members and confirmed the Government will amend the Statutory Instrument as we requested ahead of the policy coming into effect on 1 April 2026.

This means that marinas with rateable values below £500,000 and which are wholly or mainly used for leisure / recreational purposes will be eligible for the lower business rates multipliers. In addition, the Minister has confirmed that business properties that are wholly or mainly used by riverboats that provide a recreational/leisure service are within scope for the lower multipliers and that the Government’s online guidance will updated accordingly to make these changes clear.

Our thanks goes to those members who worked with us to help secure this important change.

For further information about the changes to Business Rates please see our Budget 2025 brief on our Public Affairs webpage.