31 March 2026

Further to our successful campaign to persuade the Treasury to amend the Non-Domestic Rating (Definition of Qualifying Retail, Hospitality or Leisure Hereditament) Regulations 2025, in advance of the legislation coming into force this week (1 April), we can now confirm the legislation has now been amended. 

Previously the legislation had incorrectly listed marinas as an example of a hereditament that would bet excluded from the RHL lower multipliers. In response to our representations this has been deleted. The Treasury’s guidance to English billing authorities was also updated accordingly and states that “marinas, wharfs, piers and jetties when used wholly or mainly for recreational purposes” are within scope for the lower RHL multipliers.

In recent days our Public Affairs team has been working with the Treasury having heard that some billing authorities had already issued bills to marinas, in line with the legislation prior to its amendment, and so had not applied the lower multipliers.  The Treasury has now assured British Marine that in such cases, local billing authorities will need to re-issue bills to the affected hereditaments and the change will be backdated to 1 April.   The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government will also be writing to billing authorities to make this clear.

In addition to ensuring marinas benefit from the RHL lower multipliers, we have also sought assurance that passenger boat operators, whose vessels provide recreational trips on rivers, may also benefit from the RHL lower multipliers. Although the Minister assured us earlier this year that “properties that are wholly or mainly used by riverboats providing recreational / leisure services are within scope of the new multipliers” we are mindful that public transport hereditaments, “such as riverboat services, including piers used for river services” are listed in the legislation as being excluded from qualifying for the lower multipliers.  Therefore to avoid any risk of misinterpretation, our Public Affairs team asked the Treasury to further update its guidance to billing authorities.

The Treasury’s guidance was updated today and now includes the following clarification:  “Please note only hereditaments used by riverboat services that are wholly or mainly used for transport purposes (i.e. where the main purpose of the riverboat is to simply transport passengers, such as commuters, from one location to another) are out of scope. Hereditaments used by riverboat services that are wholly or mainly used for leisure/recreational purposes (such as sightseeing) are in scope.”

For further information about the changes to business rates see our Budget 2025 Brief on the Public Affairs web page here.

For information on the different types of business rates relief see here.